Incorporated in March 2021, OHM is yet to commence operations, the Chennai-based company said in a statement.

Hinduja group flagship firm Ashok Leyland is scouting for partners for its subsidiary OHM Global Mobility, which is engaged in providing mobility services of its electric buses, a top company official said.

Most electric bus makers have formed subsidiaries to run the buses themselves though services which involve employing drivers, scheduling of services, charging of the vehicles among others is not a core business area for them.

Speaking to FE, Dheeraj Hinduja, executive chairman, Ashok Leyland said, “We see this as a completely new business avenue for us. For OHM Mobility it is a new area but we will partner with people who are already in the business. But considering that we are making these vehicles for a subsidiary to be operating, it seems quite an optimal way.”

Last month Ashok Leyland announced the infusion of Rs 300 crore into OHM which it said would likely result in enhancing operational efficiency and synergy. Incorporated in March 2021, OHM is yet to commence operations, the Chennai-based company said in a statement.

“In the long run OHM will have this as its core business even though it may not be core for Ashok Leyland,” Hinduja added. Switch Mobility, which is one of the other subsidiaries that was created by Ashok Leyland for tapping opportunities in the electric commercial vehicle space, had been looking for a partner with financial resources.

“While Ashok Leyland and Switch (Mobility) are vehicle makers, we needed a company specifically for operational purposes. Although we have got vehicles running in parts of the country, having someone run these vehicles is much more specialized,” Hinduja said.

“Having a company like OHM is very much necessary and that’s when we felt the need to have OHM as a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland rather than a subsidiary of Switch,” Hinduja added.

Last year Ashok Leyland, through its subsidiary Switch Mobility, delivered about 400 buses in total. Most of them were part of government contracts.

Mahesh Babu, CEO, Switch Mobility said that 300 of its buses are running in Bengaluru with more than 98% uptime. “Our double-deckers in Mumbai have done more than 500,000 kms. We have also supplied to JSW for employee transport and Chalo in Mumbai.”

The e-buses deployed are part of the second tender put out by Convergence Energy Services (CESL) where Switch Mobility emerged as one of the largest bidders. The company won orders for more than 1000 buses.

With regards to Switch Mobility, Ashok Leyland has decided to put the hunt of the partner on the backburner for the time being due to insufficient valuation. Hinduja said that when Switch achieves satisfactory scale in volumes and has enough models, the management will resume the search for a partner.

Courtesy: FE