Ashok Leyland’s Plans for E-Mobility – EV Next
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Introduction
The government’s ambition to change all public transportation to electric has sent all major commercial vehicle manufacturers scurrying for EV technology. Established in 1948, Ashok Leyland is the 2nd largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India, the 4th largest manufacturer of buses in the world and the 12th largest manufacturer of trucks globally. Being a very successful OEM, Ashok Leyland stands front even in the EV race.
Company Profile
The flagship company of the Hinduja group, Ashok Leyland is headquartered in Chennai. Their manufacturing footprint spreads across the globe with 9 plants; including one each at Great Britain and Ras Al Khaimah (UAE). Their Joint Venture partners include John Deere (USA) for Construction Equipment, Continental AG (Germany) for Automotive Infotronics and the Alteams Group for the manufacture of high-press die-casting extruded aluminum components for the automotive and telecommunications sectors.
Product Profile
The company unveiled the Country’s first Circuit electric bus designed and engineered entirely in India in Dec 2016. The bus uses just one lithium ion battery, compared with a pack of cells.
Future Plans
- Ashok Leyland is working with Ahmedabad city corporation for deployment of 50 electric buses for public transport. 18 of these buses will be powered by an automatic swappable battery while the remaining 38 will be powered by ultra fast charging batteries. Ahmedabad rolled out the first 9 e-buses in August, 2019.
Partnerships
- In Jul 2017, the company partnered with SUN Mobility for supply of swappable batteries for Circuit S bus.
- In Aug 2017, the company announced that it is scouting for a battery maker to power its expansion into the electric vehicles space. It was also working with leading engineering colleges like IITs to develop storage solutions.
- In Jan 2018, the company partnered with Israel’s Phinergy for use of aluminium air batteries designed by the latter in electric vehicles and other applications
- In Aug 2017, the company partnered with IIT Madras to carry out research and development (R&D) activities for strengthening battery engineering and related sub-parts, especially for electric vehicles.
- ABB India developed a proprietary technology called TOSA for ultra fast charging of the buses. ABB will also deploy operate and service these charging stations as a part of the MoU signed between the companies in January 2020.
- In 2016, Ashok Leyland had ended its eight-year-old partnership with Nissan Motor Co as both partners agreed to part ways. Nissan sold its stake in three joint ventures to Ashok Leyland. In May 2008, Ashok Leyland and Nissan had formed three JV s- Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles Ltd (ALNVL) for vehicles manufacturing; Nissan Ashok Leyland PowerTrain Ltd (NALPT) for making power trains; and Nissan Ashok Leyland Technologies Ltd (NALT), a technology joint venture.
Circuit S Bus at the Auto Expo 2018
R&D
- Ashok Leyland has a cutting edge electric vehicle (EV) facility in its Ennore plant. It is India’s first integrated facility for design, prototyping, testing, process prototyping and solutions design. The in-house facilities include engineering, prototyping and testing for Motors, Battery Modules and Packs and a Power Electronics Lab. Keeping in mind the rapidly evolving and changing market and technology, it has been conceived as an in-house start-up facility in order to stay flexible and fast.
- The facility is equipped with digital tools for manufacturing and field tracking. This centre, along with the eMobTech centre, located in IITM Research Park, will be generating and implementing all the Services and Solutions contracts that are related to eMobility, for Ashok Leyland
Global work
- Ashok Leyland’s U.K. subsidiary Optare PLC has bagged orders for supply of 37 Metrodecker double decker electric buses in London in February, 2020.
- The company is in process of opening new markets in Africa , ASEAN and CIS besides strengthening our key markets of SAARC and GCC. They will launch new ranges of products I LCV , Buses and Truck in RHD and LHD version.
- Ashok Leyland is steadily gearing up to be part of the electric commercial vehicle journey and claims to be the only company in the world that offers a modular architecture with a variety of energy management options.
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