JBM Auto MD Says Most Buses To Be Electric By 2030

In the next three to five years, the market will be more than 50-60% electric and by 2030, close to 100% would be electric for all new buses, according to Nishant Arya of JBM Auto Ltd.

EVs will be taking more than 35-40% of top-line in the next financial year, Arya, vice chairman and managing director at the company, told NDTV Profit.

"The market has been pretty buoyant and growth-oriented. We are very geared up to cross the Rs 5,000-crore mark. This year, we are looking to see that more than 30% of the total top-line of JBM Auto will be EV. And, definitely the businesses in the company. We have three business divisions; all of them are growing rapidly," he said.

The company currently has orders for 5,000 electric buses, of which close to 2,000 buses will be delivered in FY24 and the rest will be delivered next year. "Last quarter, we delivered buses at the Statue of Unity, which was a very prestigious project for us, which we completed in a short duration of time. Similarly, we are also working on how we can deliver buses across the country and the best class quality and technology."

Already, the company's facility is the largest in India. "We are well-geared up as a dedicated electronic bus manufacturer and categorically, we are seeing that today we are at 25% capacity," he said.

In terms of expansion, the company is good for the next three years, and doesn't need any extra capacity expansion, Arya said. But it is constantly investing on technology and new products. "We are always welcoming such opportunities to grow and invest further on capacity, as the requirement comes up."

Earlier, the company had received orders from only central government, but now there are orders from different state governments and interest from different Fortune 500 companies and large corporates as well. "The whole paradigm shift has come in with India's G20 leadership and COP28 as well. The initiative that we are gearing for has nearly 8 lakh electric buses, is one of such transformative initiatives that have been taken," he said.

The company is receiving orders that are a combination of both replacement and augmentation of buses, Arya said.

The company delivers the whole EV ecosystem to customers, so that they get end-to-end solutions and don't have to deal with multiple parties.

With the current order book of 5,000 buses, the company's market share is more than 30% and it would like to retain and grow it even further, Ayra said.

"We are focused on public buses currently and we would like to stick to that. We are expanding our portfolio in the bus segment for catering to each specific customer."

The company also has JB Motors subsidiaries, which are one of the largest high voltage EV batteries producing companies in India and have about 2.4 GW hours of EV battery capacity, he said.