Smartron enters into B2B e-bike segment with tbike One Pro
Smartron India, smartphone and Internet of Things (IoT) products manufacturer made an announcement that it has forayed into the B2B electric bike segment. The company has unveiled its flagship crossover product, tbike One Pro in a strategic alliance with travel tech platform BLive.

The Smartron will be providing these smart cloud-connected e-bikes across 14 cities across India. tbike One Pro is powered by tronX™, an AIOT platform that enables smart and intelligent features for e-fleet owners, riders and lease companies.

Ather 450X electric scooter launched in 16 additional cities
India’s leading EV startup Ather Energy announced that it has launched its 450X scooter in 16 additional cities in India. The Ather 450X electric scooter launched in Mysore, Hubli, Jaipur, Indore, Panaji, Bhubaneshwar, Nasik, Surat, Chandigarh, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Guwahati, Nagpur, Noida, Lucknow and Siliguri. At present, the electric vehicle startup has its presence in 11 locations across the country.

The company in a statement said it is expanding its plan to meet the national demand for the vehicle and Ather 450X will be available across 27 cities in India.

Hero MotoCorp partners Harley Davidson to develop premium bike segment
India’s leading two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp and Harley-Davidson announced a partnership for the Indian market to develop its presence in the premium bike segment. It aims to build a complete portfolio in the segment.

Hero MotoCorp is popularly known as a leader for its budget bike segments such as 100-110cc and is also in the process to develop electric two-wheelers for both mass and premium segments.

Zypp Electric to onboard female riders adds more 9,000 e-scooters
Zypp Electric is India’s leading last-mile delivery app plans to expand its fleet to 10,000 e-scooters in next 12-14 months and onboard more riders that includes women to meet the demand for its services.

The company at present has about 1,000 electric scooters on its platform and works with 350 business-to-business (B2B) merchants to carry out their last-mile deliveries. Zypp Electric co-founder and CEO Akash Gupta said the company has onboarded 100 female riders (delivery partners), primarily in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram in a new initiative when one of its partners wanted to have some female riders.

Ola to hire 2,000 people for its EV business
Bengaluru based ride-hailing firm Ola aims to double its current number of people to around 2,000 for its electric vehicles business in next 6 months. SoftBank Group-backed Ola is scouting for a location to build a 2 million-unit-a-year electric scooter manufacturing plant in India. The company aims to sell at least a million scooters in the first year of operation.

It had also announced about the launch of its electric scooters in India and Europe, will price its maiden two-wheeler lineup at around INR 90,000-INR 95,000 per unit.

DDC signs MoU with think tank to deal with air pollution
Air pollution in India is the major cause of climate change and global warming. The automobile industry is one of the main reasons for air pollution in the country. As we all are aware that India is the fifth most polluted country in the world. To deal with the air pollution the Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) signed an MoU with think tank to suggest and analyse policy and legal framework to address air pollution in Delhi-NCR.

Lucid Motors completes $700M factory for its first electric vehicle
Electric automaker Lucid Motor has completed the first phase of its $700 million factories to produce its first all-electric luxury air sedan in Arizona.

The factory has the capacity to produce 30,000 vehicles a year and is located about halfway between Tucson and Phoenix. If the company attracts its bid to attract buyers then the factory will expand from its current 999,000 square feet to more than 5 million square feet. Once it is fully built the factory will have the capacity to build 400,000 vehicles a year.

The company is already getting ready to start its construction on the next phase of the factory early next year that will be used to produce its next vehicle, an all-electric SUV in 2023. It is planning to establish the factory that will be of 590 acres in 4 phases through 2028.

Etrio launches leasing plans for electric cargo 3W Touro
Electric vehicle start-up Etrio has recently launched electric cargo three-wheeler Touro can now be taken on lease rentals which are starting at Rs 7,000 per month. The company has entered into the electric three-wheeler segment with the rollout of Touro range of products with the starting price tag of Rs 1.7 lakh. ETrio is coming out with a special leasing plan ‘E-Lease’ for selected large corporate customers for the mass deployment of the vehicles.

At initial stages, the plan will be available in Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru but in the next few months, it will be available in other major cities in India.

Hyundai unveils new E-GMP platform for next-gen EVs
Hyundai Motor Group has unveiled the new platform that will help it for its next-generation electric vehicles. The company’s new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) will provide some performance profits for its existing vehicle architecture designed for internal combustion engines and also vehicle development and manufacturing.

As per the company, the battery electric vehicles (BEVs) built off the E-GMP platform will offer range more than 500 km (310 mph) from a full battery and can charge up to 80% within 18 minutes. It accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 3.5 seconds and can give a top speed of 260 km/h (161 mph).

Ashok Leyland renames its UK Optare as Switch Mobility for electrification
Hinduja flagship and the fourth-largest manufacturer of buses in the world and 10th largest manufacturer of trucks globally and the second-largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in India, Ashok Leyland renamed its UK subsidiary Optare Group as Switch Mobility as part of the drive towards electrification and new mobility services.

It announced plans to bring ALL’s entire EV initiatives under this entity. As the company plans to leverage the growth opportunities in the global LCV & bus EV market which will grow more than 25% and will be worth $50 billion by 2030.

Siemens powers 37 fully-electric double-decker buses in London
Siemens Smart Infrastructure a charging infrastructure firm has partnered with Tower Transit a bus operator in London for 37 new fully-electric double-decker buses in London.

Matthias Rebellius, a managing board member of Siemens AG and CEO of Smart Infrastructure said that “Helping Tower Transit deliver its first depot for fully-electric routes, with these iconic double-decker buses, is an important milestone for both the operator and London, as progress continues to be made with improving the air quality and lives of people in the capital,”

“The work at Westbourne Park reinforces Siemens’ growing reputation as one of the world’s leading providers of electrical infrastructure and transport solutions, which are paving the way towards the electrification of the transport sector.”

Tata HBX EV electric micro SUV to launch in 2022
The French carmaker Citroen to launch Tata HBX EV a micro SUV in 2022 in the Indian market. It has already planned its lineup with C21 sub 4 meter SUV. The company is also planning to launch a low-cost electric vehicle also which is expected to launch in 2022.

It plans to concentrate more on cleaner and greener vehicles in India. The upcoming electric vehicle is the electric version of the CC2 mini SUV which is expected to launch in 2021. The E-CMP platform will have a 50 kWh battery capacity and have a 100 kW motor and can give a range between 310 km and 340 km.

It is also available with a 30kWh battery pack but it will be a little expensive for the car segment it is expecting. The eCC21 is expected to be priced around Rs 8 lakh which will be the most affordable electric vehicles in our market.

Delhi govt to give 25% subsidy on Ecycles under EV policy
To promote the electric vehicles, the Delhi govt has announced a 25% subsidy on Ecycles (electric cycles) under the EV policy. The decision has been taken as part of the government’s draft proposal under the Delhi Electric Vehicle Policy 2020 of having 25% electric vehicles on road by 2024.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal clarified that there will be an incentive of up to Rs 30,000 on electric two-wheelers, electric autos & e-rickshaws, and up to Rs 1.5 lakh on electric cars and now it has been decided for electric cycles too. For Ecycles there will be up to 25% of the cost of the cycle with an additional incentive of Rs 2,000 for the first 10K ecycles sold.

The cargo ecycles will get higher incentives which would be used for last-mile deliveries. For per cargo ecycle will be given a purchase incentive of 33% of the price, up to Rs 15K for the first 10K electric cargo cycles buyers.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids & Ashok Leyland partners for an e-bus pilot project
Hitachi ABB Power Grids has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ashok Leyland and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) for an e-mobility pilot project. The partnership will run an electric bus pilot project to support eco-friendly in-campus commuting by IITM’s students and staff.

Ashok Leyland will provide electric buses incorporating Hitachi ABB Power Grids‘ flash-charging technology-Grid-eMotionTM Flash. IITM will help with the infrastructure to operate the flash charging system for the e-bus.

APSRTC electric buses to ply on Tirumala hills & Govt allows E2W to run as taxis
Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation will soon introduce electric buses to transport visiting pilgrims to Tirumala Hills where the famous temple of Lord Venkateswara is located, from Tirupati.

It aims to maintain the hilly areas to be from pollution, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) that manages the hill decided to introduce electric buses in the place of those operated by diesel, TTD Board Chairman YV Subba Reddy told.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy also reacted positively to the request made by TTD said, Reddy.

Swiggy & Zomato to shift to 10% of the delivery fleet to EVs in 2021
India’s biggest food delivery startups Swiggy and Zomato are cleaning up their actions by choosing electric vehicles rides over regular petrol diesel vehicles. This came as companies all over the world face heat issues over carbon emissions and climate change. The startups plan to shift to at least 10% of their delivery fleets mostly two-wheelers to electric in 2021. They are in talks with electric scooters and bike aggregators such as Zypp, Spinny and eBikeGo.

EV market to be a $206 billion opportunity for India by 2030
CEEW Centre for Energy Finance has revealed in a new study that electric vehicles will be a $206 billion opportunity for India by 2030. To achieve this the country will need an estimated annual battery capacity of 158 GWh by FY30.

The study also estimates a cumulative investment need of over $180 billion (Rs 12,50,000 crore) in vehicle production and charging infrastructure until 2030 to meet India’s EV ambition. India’s target to bring 25% of electric vehicles on road by 2030 stipulated by NITI Aayog-government’s primary think tank.

Avass fully electric sports car R800 gives 1,160 km range
Avass Group an Australian company in its latest developments in its electric car project has achieved consistent performance tests of 1,160 km with a single charge in the Avass Prototype R800, a fully electric Sports Car. The R800 fully electric sports car is 870 kg that delivers a rapid response to rear-drive through the central high-performance Avass Motor.

The sports electric car performance tests took 11.6 hours to achieve 1,160 km with a single charge with a top speed of 100 km/h not exceeding more than that. Its battery pack capacity is 120kWh and its energy consumption is 10.33kWh/100km with current capacity 112.41Ah.

Last year the company had announced that it will be exploring opportunities of expanding operations in India and is viewing India as a key base to manufacture a range of full-electric vehicles, including buses, cars, motorcycles, batteries and more.

Ola to launch electric two-wheeler range in New Zealand
Ola, a mobility services provider has unveiled its electric two-wheeler range in New Zealand. The company to launch its two-wheeled EV in early 2021 and the segment becomes vertical for the cab-hailing company. Ola said these offerings will lend to the New Zealand government’s goal of on-roading 64,000 new electric vehicles by the end of 2021.

New Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle launched
Toyota has launched the second generation of its fuel cell electric vehicle Mirai to curb the pollution levels from the country. The new Toyota Mirai now appears more like a luxury car as it has got some new design elements as well as new features. Its range has also been improved by about 30% more than the earlier model.

Toyota Motor has commenced its sale in Japan. Mirai is priced starting from 7.1 million yen ($68,188), or 300,000 yen lower than the earlier version. After the government’s subsidies, Japanese consumers can expect to pay about 5.7 million yen.