How The PM-eBus Sewa Scheme Will Benefit Auto Manufacturers
The scheme will have an estimated cost of Rs 57,613 crore, of which Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the central government.
The Union Cabinet approved the PM-eBus Sewa scheme on Wednesday, under which 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership model.
The scheme will have an estimated cost of Rs 57,613 crore, out of which Rs 20,000 crore will be provided by the central government and the remaining will be borne by the states, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said, during a press conference.
"It's a path-breaking initiative taken by the Prime Minister in a right direction that ensures that electric mobility, and that too public transportation meant for the common man, goes to the grassroot level," said Nishant Arya, vice chairman of JBM Auto Ltd.
Arya estimates that it will take about 12-15 months for projects to be awarded, following which "things will come on stream for companies to start executing as per the plan and take things forward".
The estimated delivery time for the company to execute the projects should be from the third quarter of the next fiscal, he said.
JBM Auto has an order book of around 5,000 EV buses, which they will be delivering in the next 12-13 months across India. The company has deals with several Fortune 500 companies as well, he said.
Its new plant currently has the capacity to manufacture 28,000 electric vehicle buses per annum, and capacity utilisation is at 25%, Arya said.
Switch Mobility, an electric vehicle manufacturer which is a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland Ltd., has an order for over 1,000 buses.
"The government is doing (the) scheme through Convergence Energy Services Ltd. where company will supply close to 1,000 buses to Delhi. This new scheme will help us to work closely on PPP model with the government," said Mahesh Babu, chief executive officer of Switch Mobility.
Last year, the company had a market share of 20% in the e-bus segment.
Electric bus manufacturer Olectra Greentech Ltd. has bagged an order from Maharashtra State Road Transport Corp. for 5,150 buses in this quarter. It is worth more than Rs 10,000 crore and is the largest single order in the electric bus industry.
The company's net order book position stood at 8,344 buses, after delivering 75 buses in this quarter. It has a capacity of 1,500 buses on a single shift.
Tata Motors Ltd. has plans to scale up the EV supplies, both in terms of AC electric vehicles and electric buses.
Convergence Energy Services Ltd., as part of its first tender, has deployed almost 180 electric buses in Q1 FY24 and has more than 600 buses which are operational now.
This outlay of Rs 57,613 crore is holistic and includes the entire ecosystem for electric buses as well as maintenance and operations, said JBM Auto's Arya.
