Tata Motors, Goldstone Infratech-BYD win electric bus orders from 9 cities

10 Indian cities have invited tenders in the past two months as part of a pilot partly funded by the central department of heavy industries

Tata Motors and a joint venture between Goldstone Infratech and BYD of China have bagged orders to supply electric buses to nine of the 10 cities that had invited tenders in the past two months as part of a pilot partly funded by the central department of heavy industries.

Tata Motors, which emerged as the lowest bidder, will supply 190 buses to six cities – Jaipur, Indore, Kolkata, Jammu, Guwahati and Lucknow – said the company’s spokesperson.

The Goldstone-Infratech and BYD combine will be supplying 290 buses to Telangana, Mumbai and Bengaluru, said a company spokesperson, claiming BYD buses already had 125,000 kilometres on Indian roads. These buses come with AC fast-charging as a standard feature enabling coverage of up to 300 km on a single charge with four to five hours of charging, he added.

Girish Wagh, president, commercial vehicle business, Tata Motors, said the company had been investing extensively in research and development of electric vehicles for the past decade and had carried out extensive testing and validated across the country. “We strongly believe the electrification of public transportation is the key enabler for sustainable mobility,” said Wagh.

Tata Motors, he added, had taken a long-term view regarding electrification as it believed sustainability and development of a full EV ecosystem would hinge on a strong participation of local players which invest in end-to-end value chain. It is, therefore, looking forward to playing a lead role in this journey alongside the government and hopes to be supported through enabling policies.

An official at a rival company alleged that the prices quoted by Tata Motors were untenable. But Wagh refuted: “We have a clear line of sight of profitability. We remain committed to this cause and will continue to invest in this field.”

An Ashok Leyland spokesperson said the company had bagged an order to supply 50 buses to Ahemedabad on a per kilometre basis.

Mahindra and Mahindra, which was also one of the bidders, didn’t get any orders in the first phase. Vinod Sahay, CEO of Mahindra’s truck and bus division, said the company was trying to understand how it had been done, as the gap between the lowest and highest bidder for regular vehicles was not so huge. “We really can’t answer what explains the gap; we will keep a watch on the next tender,” said Sahay.

This is the second time that M&M has been outbid by rival Tata Motors in a government order for electric vehicles. In September 2017, Tata Motors had won a government contract for supplying 10,000 electric cars by outbidding Mahindra. Subsequently, M&M had matched the bid made by Tata Motors for 30 per cent of the order.

Under its flagship FAME (faster adoption and manufacturing of (Hybrid & Electric)) scheme, the government is giving a greater thrust to electric vehicles in the public transportation space. It plans to accord priority to public transport in the second phase of FAME, PTI reported on December 27 quoting the Heavy Industry And Public Enterprise Minister Anant Geete. “Our primary objective will be that the country's public transport should be 100 per cent electric. If it becomes so, we can reduce pollution to a great extent," Geete said. The total allocation to the ministry of heavy industry under the first phase of FAME scheme was Rs 7.95 billion for the subsidy and charging infrastructure. Due to the massive response received, there was a need to increase allocation but this would be done in FAME II, he said.