ABB Power zooms 33% in 3 days on tie-up with Ashok Leyland for e-bus pilot

The company has signed an MoU with Ashok Leyland and the IIT-Madras for an e-mobility pilot

Shares of ABB Power Products and Systems India rose 13 per cent to Rs 1,296, also its new high on the BSE on Tuesday.

In the past three days, the stock zoomed 33 per cent after Hitachi ABB Power Grids in India, listed on the stock exchanges as ‘ABB Power Products and Systems India Ltd.’, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ashok Leyland and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) for an e-mobility pilot. The triumvirate will run an electric bus (e-bus) pilot for in-campus commuting by IITM’s students and staff.

“The development of India's e-mobility charging infrastructure and increased deployment of e-buses is key to meeting the demand for sustainable transport solutions across India's rural and urban areas,” said Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras.

Smart e-mobility is at a nascent stage in India. While India’s government is striving to scale up electrical vehicle (EV) adoption to 30 percent by 2030, the mass public transport segment is largely untouched.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids’ innovative flash-charging system quickly tops up the battery while passengers get on and off the bus. On arterial roads, an e-bus with this solution can reduce the need to take the vehicle out of service for recharging every few hours or having a replacement bus ready. This helps minimize the size of the fleet while increasing passenger carrying capacity, the company said.

Meanwhile, in the July-September quarter (Q3CY20), the company said the orders was up 56.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) at Rs 890 crore, despite restricted business activity. As of September 30, 2020, order backlog was Rs 5,175 crore, providing visibility of future revenue. The company further said the operational EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin returns to pre-pandemic range on improved capacity utilization and product mix.

At 02:23 pm, the stock was up 12 per cent at Rs 1,280 on the BSE, as compared to 1.2 per cent gain in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined around 160,000 equity shares had changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.