Mahesh Babu joins Ashok Leyland EV business, COO Nitin Seth resigns

Babu has over 25 years of experience in mobility and joins the firm from Mahindra Electric

UK-based Switch Mobility, the electric vehicle business wing of Chennai based Ashok Leyland, has announced the appointment of Mahesh Babu in two leadership positions as the chief operating officer of Switch Mobility and chief executive officer of Switch Mobility, India.

Babu has over 25 years of experience in mobility and joins Switch from Mahindra Electric where he was Managing Director and chief executive officer. Switch Mobility will be launching its first electric Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) in India by the end of December and has already got around 2,000 orders from various customers. These vehicles will be manufactured in India and will be sold under the Switch brand. The group has plans to invest around $150-200 million in the EV space in the next few years.

Under Babu’s leadership, Mahindra Electric launched six new electric vehicles including three-wheeler and four-wheeler commercial vehicles as well as the innovative software platform, NEMO. One of the most prestigious projects under his leadership was India’s first monocoque SUV, the XUV500. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in shaping future mobility policy in India by delivering electric TCO solutions through groundbreaking initiatives in passenger vehicles, commercial fleets, and last mile mobility. He actively contributed to various EV committees of both central and State governments, CII and FICCI and until recently, he served as the Chairman of the Electric Mobility Group at SIAM, the APEX Automotive Association of India and before joining Mahindra, he previously worked at Ashok Leyland.

Andy Palmer, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Switch Mobility, said: “I look forward to working with him closely to achieving our ambition to provide net zero carbon van and bus solutions globally and realising our bold sustainability objectives at Switch.” With the combined expertise of its teams in the UK and India, Switch Mobility will build on its experience of having more than 280 electric vehicles in service with over 26 million miles covered.

Babu said, “I believe Switch has the capability and the compelling offering to create a leading first-class global electric vehicle company. I look forward to being part of its growth story.”

On Wednesday, Nitin Seth, the Chief Operating Officer of Ashok Leyland, the UK-based electric vehicle arm of the truck maker, resigned from the company for an ‘alternate career outside the company’. This was after eleven years of service at Ashok Leyland and successfully leading a strong team in building Ashok Leyland’s LCV business as well as other growth businesses. Vipin Sondhi, managing director and chief executive officer of Ashok Leyland said, ‘Nitin has been a core member of the Leadership team at Ashok Leyland. We wish him the very best for the future. The Company has a strong bandwidth of leaders and we will continue to pursue our growth ambitions in all businesses as planned’