Eka Mobility aims to manufacture 10,000 e-buses annually by FY27

Eka Mobility, a startup turned original equipment manufacturer (OEM) that makes electric vehicles (EVs), is targeting to ramp up production of e-buses to 10,000 by 2026-27, founder and chairman Sudhir Mehta told Business Standard.

 

According to Mehta, Eka plans to bring in a new product every six months across its commercial vehicle (CV) segments.

 

This is being envisioned as the company is focusing on supply chain management and readying one million square feet of manufacturing space across its three plants. It is expanding its research and development (R&D) and technology centre at the Chakan plant in Pune.

 

“To contribute to the government’s EV push, considering the extremely low penetration of e-buses in the country, we are ramping up our e-bus production capacity to 10,000 in our Koregaon and Pithampur plants by FY27,” Mehta said in an interview.

 

The current capacity at the Koregaon-Bhima unit in Pune is about 2,500 a year, which is expected to increase to 5,000 by FY27. Once operational by FY27, the Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh facility is set to manufacture another 5,000 units annually. 

 

Meanwhile, Eka has bagged an order for 2,125 e-buses from the Centre under its PM e-Bus Sewa scheme. The order list includes 750 e-buses for Andhra Pradesh, 675 for Rajasthan and 205 for Chhattisgarh. 

 

This is in addition to its previous order of 1,500 e-buses from Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC), Nagpur Municipal Corporation, and other private orders. 

 

Launched in August 2023, PM e-Bus Sewa Scheme is aimed at augmenting the bus operations by deploying 10,000 e-buses on the public-private partnership (PPP) model across the country.

 

The e-bus and small electric CV manufacturer now aims to hold the largest electric commercial vehicle portfolio in the country. It plans to create an initial annual capacity of 24,000 vehicles across all truck segments (small CVs to e-trucks). 

 

Elaborating on the plan, Mehta said, “Heavier trucks are under trial and testing at the moment. Commercial launch of these will be before September. The trial and validation process takes almost six months to one year.” 

 

“We will have trucks small to large, from three-wheelers to heavy trucks. For the next 12-18 months, we plan to have the largest fully available electric commercial vehicle portfolio in the country. A new product will be coming every 4-6 months,” he said. 

 

On a similar line, Eka also plans to roll out its new 18-metre articulated coach with 125-seater e-buses in the next 12 months.

 

At present, it has a variety of e-buses in the 7-metre, 9-metre and intercity coach segments.

 

The company’s head confirmed that Eka is eyeing the e-ambulance market. It plans to roll out e-ambulances as part of its product range over the next year or so.

 

According to Mehta, Eka took the longer route for developing technologies in India with its partners.

 

He said, “We are creating a supply chain with 100 per cent localisation which took us 4-5 years. Now, you will see us coming with a new product almost every 4-6 months over the next 1-2 years. And, all our products will be available for commercial sale.”

 

When asked about Eka’s estimated revenue by FY30, Mehta added, “We began production 3-4 four months ago. We can estimate once we start selling. If each bus is about ₹1 crore and we do 2,000 buses in 12 months, that’s ₹2,000 crore. Trucks will add additional revenue.”