Olectra Greentech Ltd (OGL), a leading manufacturer of electric buses, has achieved a milestone by surpassing 10,000 units in its e-bus order book. It is the first e-bus OEM in the country to achieve this.
Also, the company has successfully extended the co-operation agreement with BYD, the Chinese EV major that now rivals Elon Musk’s Tesla, till December 31, 2030, highlighting the promising future of bus electrification in India.
In FY24, Olectra continued to secure orders from State Transport Undertakings transitioning to battery-powered buses. As of March 31, 2024, their electric order book reached 10,969 units, with 507 buses delivered in FY24. Delays in trials and certification for bus batteries prevented higher deliveries during the fiscal.
“Olectra has homologated and completed AIS 038 certification for all e-bus models’ batteries,” the company management indicated during the Q4FY24 earnings call.
During last fiscal, the company secured what it calls the ‘world’s largest e-bus order of 5,150 units’ from MSRTC (The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation). At the same time, it also bagged an order to supply 3,000 electric buses from Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST), Mumbai. The company also won a court case for BEST’s order for 2,100 buses.
As of March 31, 2024, the company delivered 1,695 electric buses and 51 tippers. The company expects to deliver more than 2,000 electric buses in this fiscal, supported by the new capacity that is likely to come on stream during the year.
Enhancing tech capabilities
The ₹1,154 crore company is setting up a new greenfield factory over a 150-acre site at Seetharampur near Hyderabad, Telangana. “Our focus continues increasing our capacity and enhancing our technology capabilities. The construction work of the new state-of-the-art plant is in full swing and partial production from the facility is expected to commence this month, Sharat Chandra, Chief Financial Officer of the company said.
The estimated investment in the new facility is ₹700 plus crore, funded through a term loan of ₹500 crore and the remaining ₹200 crore via internal accruals. The new facility capacity is expected to reach 5,000 units by the end of this fiscal and 10,000 units in the following year.
Key players
During FY24, India’s electric bus market reported growth of 84 per cent at 3,708 units, up from 2,008 units in FY23. The leading players in terms of e-bus deliveries during the last fiscal include Tata Motors, JBM Auto, Olectra Greentech. PMI Electro Mobility and Mytrah Mobility, among others.
The Central Government is pushing very hard for electrification in the public transportation segment. Though the share of EV conversion is very low now, the Government plans to come out with some policy guidelines to drive the electrification of public transport. It is working out a programme to replace about 8 lakh diesel buses, constituting about one-third of the total buses plying on roads, with battery-powered ones by 2030.