GreenCell Mobility is all set to offer electric mobility as a service platform. As a part of this, it would run the first intercity e-bus for Maharashtra Regional State Transport (MSRTC) from the city. Initially, the bus would run on the Pune-Ahmednagar route. Then there are also plans to deploy 50 such electric buses for intercity travel across Maharashtra for MSRTC soon. Covered cities will include Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nasik and Solapur.
With the demand for electric vehicles, we are also witnessing a similar trend in the commercial sector. Multiple state governments have announced incentives that make owning an electric vehicle much more appealing. The Central Government’s FAME initiative also spearheads this paradigm shift.
GreenCell Mobility will create ‘green routes’ with Twelve-metre buses in the state. A total of ten buses will ply between Pune and Aurangabad as an extension of the Pune-Ahmednagar route. Meanwhile, 12 buses will run on the Pune – Kolhapur route. For the Pune – Nasik routes, GreenCell will deploy 18 buses. Lastly, for the Pune-Solapur route, there will be 10 buses. The range of these electric buses stands at 250 km per charge. For faster charging, these buses also get Li-ion batteries. GreenCell claims a charging time of 90 to 120 minutes. All the buses under this scheme will have air-conditioned cabins. With these electric buses, a total of 3,743 tons of CO2 zero tailpipe emissions would be avoided over the lifetime.
The charging infrastructure is where India is currently lacking behind in the EV space. The growing number of EVs in the market is causing pressure on the current limited charging solutions. And hence, there’s an increasing need to set up a robust and viable charging solution. A host of companies are taking progressive steps towards enabling this. Thus, five years from now, we can expect the EV space to have evolved to a much bigger scale.
Also Read: Tata delivers 35 electric buses to BEST, part of 340 e-buses order.