Ashok Leyland, India’s largest bus maker’s EV subsidiary, Switch Mobility has entered in an agreement with Chalo, an app based public transport operator to supply over 5000 electric buses over a period of three years.
This would translate into an order value of close to $ 1billion. The funding for production of these buses will be managed by Switch and Ohm Mobility’s fund raise from private equity which is likely to be closed shortly.
The order from an App based aggregator is expected to drive last mile clean mobility in the country, which already has got a strong fillip from the Government of India which has floated tender for over 5500 electric buses.
While Switch Mobility will be manufacturing these buses, its own sister company OHM Mobility will operate the same in partnership with Chalo.
The buses will be deployed across metros and other cities, which includes the initial deployment of variants of Switch EiV 12.
Mahesh Babu, COO – Switch Mobility Ltd, said, the changing mobility landscape in India is significantly altering the way people travel within cities. Given Switch’s vision to accelerate the adoption of clean, sustainable electric transportation solutions, he is delighted to partner with Chalo for a first of its kind partnership in this space.
“We aim to transform urban mobility in the country by leveraging Chalo’s strong customer connect and operational expertise along with our technologically advanced electric vehicle products. This significant partnership of 5000 electric buses, will certainly open up access to affordable, comfortable, hassle-free and environmentally friendly transport solutions, while enhancing the overall customer experience,” added Babu.
Switch-Chalo partnership believes that the venture is solving the problem of decongesting and offers a cleaner, reliable solution for the public at one-sixth the cost of a cab, one third the cost of an autorickshaw, with the comfort of a car and hence the solution offers a significant business potential.
Mohit Dubey, Co-Founder & CEO, Chalo, said, “Last year we finalised a project to add 1,000 new buses in three of our cities. Today, we are glad to partner with Switch on a scale that is 5x larger. The travel experience in these buses will be at par with global cities like Hong Kong and Singapore. We are confident that this collaboration will propel our collective journey towards building sustainable cities.”
Chalo operates over a billion rides in a year running 4000 buses across 40 cities. The company claims to create a Gross Merchandise Value GMV of 230 million dollars a year.
With the addition of Switch Mobility’s fleet, the incremental GMV annually could be about 450 million dollars. Once the entire fleet of 5000 electric buses is operationalized, Switch-Chalo is set to offer 15 million rides daily.
And all this will reduce the carbon footprint and fuel import bills, which is a critical demand from the Government of India.
These buses will save over 286000 tonnes of Co2 emission which is equivalent to 1.7 million trees capacity to consume Co2 and 86 million litres of fuel.
Chalo claims buses make up for 48% of India’s daily travel, and yet there are only 3 buses for 10,000 people.
About 150 million people travel by bus daily and yet the number of buses deployed are still not enough to meet their everyday commuting needs.
Chalo has partnered with more than 2,500 bus operators to deploy its technology platform and improve the bus travel experience. In July 2022, Chalo powered 120 million rides on its platform.
The Chalo App provides live tracking of over 15,000 buses, and is India’s #1 bus tracking app, claims the company.
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