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28Switch Mobility, formed after combining the electric commercial vehicle operations of Ashok Leyland and Optare company, has chalked out a multi-pronged growth strategy with an investment outlay of $150-200 million over the next few years as the Hinduja Group outlined its future road map in the electric vehicle space.
The group has already invested more than $130 million in building its e-vehicles business over the past 10 years. As a result, it now offers a range of products and there are more than 280 e-vehicles on the road. It is preparing for the next level of growth with growing opportunities across the world.
Growth plans
Switch Mobility will use the $150-200 million in new vehicle development, technology, partnerships and manufacturing.
Switch Mobility is planning vehicles at different price points, modular battery configuration, low-cost sourcing and manufacturing, opex-based ownership solution, among others, as part of the growth initiative.
“We are embarking on zero carbon mobility as a strategic imperative which would manifest itself in the electric vehicle portfolio and services through Switch and eMaaS,” said Dheeraj Hinduja, Chairman, Switch Mobility and Ashok Leyland, speaking to a select group of journalists
The group expects the addressable market for electric buses and light trucks globally to reach $70 billion by 2030 from $5 billion now.
Mobility as a service
It also sees pay-per-mile and subscription-based ownership models becoming the new norm to cover all sectors of passenger and cargo mobility. To address this, it will pioneer the ‘Mobility as a Service’ model as well, which will be under a new entity and branded as OHM.
Andrew Palmer, Executive Vice-Chairman and CEO of Switch Mobility Ltd, UK, said the company will leverage global scale to achieve lowest total cost of ownership in all markets. It will focus on light weight technology, vehicle optimisation while combining the expertise (vehicle platforms, R&D, suppliers) of UK and India.
“The new growth plan will see more investments into Indian R&D,” said Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, Ashok Leyland, adding, “light commercial vehicle and intermediate commercial vehicle segments may see faster adoption of EV or CNG powertrains.”
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