Electric bus mfg startup
No subsidy, no tender sales, no factory
18 million kms. No fire.
Startup’s intrigue me no end. As part of the Go mobility team – my job includes evaluating OEMs that manufacture electric buses. The GO platform targets a million electric public transport vehicles – road, water and sky – over a 100 months. It is the most ambitious transportation non-govt transition project in the world. At an average Rs one crore per vehicle, it would need Rs ten lac crores. There are no subsidies envisaged. And viability gap has to be kept low. No more than 10%.
In electric buses, Yutong and Byd of China dominate. They are lethal competition. Manufacturing subsidy, purchase subsidy, power subsidy, everything subsidy. The business is all about subsidy.
In India, the business is subsidy driven. Subsidy specialists rule the market. The bus manufacturer inflates cost to justify a larger subsidy. The bankrupt and defunct state transport companies see electrification as a reason to justify even more losses. The govt has set up a trust for subsidy based business models to ensure payments from subsidy dependent state transport corporations.
At Go mobility, we understood pretty early on that the subsidy fuelled subsidised buses were not about electrification or climate change. They were about subsidy. Poor quality buses were sold for Rs 2 crore each. Manufacturers got Rs 80 lac subsidy. The buses caught fire regularly. They stalled on roads. They ran out of range. There weren’t enough charging stations. They run less than 75,000 kms pa.
Governments are always well meaning. Businesses are about monetising that intent. Tatas, Hindujas, Firodias, Megha Engg. Every possible “subsidy player” is on the job.
15 years ago, one solitary kid went against the flow. Ankit, a BTech from IIT, had just finished his MBA from Harvard. He figured out that making an electric bus wasn’t particularly difficult. Any bus body maker could do it. He focused on the real benefits – ride quality, fuel cost, clean, longer life, easier maintenance. He focused on building a better bus using the supply chain that Volvo had created. He reduced weight to get better fuel efficiency. He put a larger battery for longer range. He built a better software stack to avoid fire risk.
Tatas have sold maybe 500 electric buses. All chasing subsides. All through govt tenders. Ankit has sold 350 buses. Most have done 500,000 kms each. Each bus has saved over a crore in fuel costs.
I test drove his latest bus. The ground clearance can be changed like u adjust electric blinds in a room. Go down to help a passenger board. Go up to avoid floods or potholes. Cabin is absolutely quiet. It takes less than one kwh of electricity to go one km. Say rs 7. A diesel bus takes Rs 30. Run 20,000 kms a month. And you save close to Rs 5 lacs a month on an incremental cost of Rs 50 lacs. Ten month breakeven.
Can he beat the Chinese whose kits are relabelled and sold as Indian ?