After two-, three- and four-wheelers, electrification of the mass transit segment is now taking off. Work on two projects, with investments of nearly Rs 5,000 crore in greenfield electric bus-manufacturing projects, has started in Pune.
Aditya Thackeray, minister of tourism and environment, Maharashtra, was in Talegaon, Pune on Friday for the ground-breaking ceremony of Causis E-Mobility’s plant in India. London-based Causis E-Mobility will be making make electric buses at the EV plant on a 75-acre facility. Causis is investing Rs 2,800 crore in the EV plant.
Work on the plant started with target to roll out buses in the first week of November 1, 2022. Capacity would be around 1,000 units. Causis will start with three variants, the 9-, 11- and 12-metre buses, with a range of 250-300 km. A battery-manufacturing facility is also in the pipeline and is expected in the next phase.
Pune-based Pinnace Mobility Solutions, the electric vehicle company promoted by Pinnacle Industries, has been working on the electric bus project for the last three years. Pinnacle Mobility’s Rs 2,000 crore electric vehicle project was recently approved under the government’s automotive PLI scheme. Sudhir Mehta, chairman, Pinnacle Mobility, said their bus designed and engineered in Pune was ready and had gone to Automotive Research Association of India for homologation. The first of the products would be a city bus and coaches and four-wheel vehicles for last-mile mobility. The buses would initially target the company staff movement segment.
Manufacturing at Pinnacle would be split between Pune and Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh. But it will not be limited to these locations as Mehta plans to create smaller assembly plants across multiple locations in the country and not build one mega plant. They could also work with state transport undertakings that had manufacturing facilities and were looking at building electric buses, Mehta said. Work begins in April 2022 and the company will start with a Rs 300 crore investment in the first year and `600 crore in the second year. It would have an annual capacity to make 500-1,000 buses. Pinnacle has tied up with Europe-based VDL for this venture. Majority of the parts would be made or sourced from within the country.
