All charged up: 5 bidders in fray for India's largest electric bus tender

18 bids received for electric buses in eight slots based on bus size, specifications and state transport undertakings

Five companies have bid for the largest tender for electric buses — 6,450 buses — in the country.

They include electric bus makers PMI Electro Mobility Solutions — which has a joint venture with Foton — Switch Mobility (an Ashok Leyland company), the Gurugram-based JBM group which is also into assembling electric buses, Pinnacle (India’s leading commercial vehicle and seating interiors company), and tour operators Travel Times.

State-owned Convergence Energy Services (CESL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of EESL, floated the tender for the electric buses on a gross cost contracting basis for a period of 10 years.

Its earlier order for