Ashok Leyland to make electric buses in Uttar Pradesh

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Ashok Leyland, a Hinduja Group company and India’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturer, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to set up an integrated commercial vehicle bus plant focused on green mobility in Uttar Pradesh. This will be Ashok Leyland’s first plant in the state.

“Under this partnership, Ashok Leyland will predominantly concentrate on the production of electric buses, with the flexibility to also assemble other vehicles powered by currently available fuels as well as emerging alternative fuels,” stated the company.

Contingent on market adoption and demand of alternative fuel vehicles in the state, Ashok Leyland intends to invest up to INR 1,000 crore ($120.25 million) in this new facility over the next few years.”

Welcoming Ashok Leyland’s investment in Uttar Pradesh, chief minister Yogi Adityanath said, “This addition reinforces our rapidly growing position as a manufacturing hub of repute within India. The Government of Uttar Pradesh is eager to attract private-sector investments aligned with our Net Zero mission. Mitigating emissions through cleaner public and freight transport is a vital step in that direction. We remain steadfast in our commitment to transitioning our entire fleet of diesel buses and commercial vehicles to electric and other alternative fuels in the coming years.”

Nand Gopal Gupta, Minister for Industrial Development, Export Promotion, NRI, and Investment Promotion, Government of Uttar Pradesh, said, within the framework of the MoU, the Government of Uttar Pradesh will facilitate the sale of electric buses annually for its own fleet and among other stakeholders for the next five years through Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland Ltd.

The manufacturing facility will initially have the capacity to produce 2,500 buses per year. The company intends to gradually expand this capacity to accommodate up to 5,000 vehicles per year over the next decade as the demand for electric and other types of buses is expected to grow substantially over the next few years. Once operational, this will be the seventh vehicle plant of Ashok Leyland in the country.

As part of the MoU, the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Ashok Leyland will also engage in discussions to develop more attractive policies aimed at accelerating the adoption of electric and green fuel trucks and buses. These policies will target both the public and private sectors, including private schools and private transportation, as part of the state’s efforts achieve net-zero.

 

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