Switch Mobility , the Ashok Leyland-backed electric bus and van OEM based in the UK,looks to ramp up its engineering team to over 1,000 members from the present 300 in the next 5-7 years. That figure is close to the current R&D team strength of around 1250 engineers at its 73 year old parent Ashok Leyland. The company is setting up a new facility in Warwick, the UK, mainly for advanced technologies to help tap the growing opportunities in the mobility industry. Switch Mobility is also looking at new form factors of urban mobility as part of its global plans.

The Warwick facility will be inaugurated in a few weeks. A part of the new team will be based there. This team will be focusing autonomous driving, and other advanced technologies. They could possibly also develop an autonomous pod for launch within a couple of years.

Mahesh Babu, COO, Switch Mobility, and CEO, Switch Mobility India

"What we have decided is that the advanced technology portion, which is autonomous driving, new R&D will be done in our Warwick facility which we are opening shortly," Mahesh Babu, COO, Switch Mobility, and CEO, Switch Mobility India, told ETAuto. He added the India engineering team will play a "very vital role" in EV architecture, software technology, and core engineering.

At the inauguration of its Warwick facility Switch Mobility is expected to make announcements about its plans with advanced technologies like ADAS (Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems). With collaboration increasingly becoming the name of the automotive game, especially in the electric vehicle (EV) space, Switch Mobility could also tie up with universities, and industry players. One of them could possibly be Warwick University, already a preferred base for some automotive industry players, including Tata Motors.

Switch e1 12m bus

Switch Mobility is looking at leveraging its presence in the UK and its parent Ashok Leyland in India to marry the strengths of British advanced engineering and Indian software and frugal engineering to power its global ambitions. Its recent launches, e1 in Europe and the EIV12 in India are examples. They share the same architecture developed mainly in India.

A 650V architecture is being used for the buses, and adapted for different applications and markets. "India will do application engineering for the regional markets, the UK will do application engineering for Great Britain, Spain will do application engineering for the Spanish, or the European market," Babu added.

Switch EiV 12

Switch Mobility had earlier said that it expects the global electric bus market to grow 12 times, and the electric van market to be 14 times its current size by 2030. The OEM is set to launch its first van by the end of the current financial year. India is expected to be among the developing markets that it will be driving into first.

As its plans progress, Switch Mobility looks to ramp up its overall team strength from the current 750 to anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 people in the next 5-7 years.

Courtesy:ET Auto