Olectra to get into heavy-duty electric trucks in India
Begins in-house trials
Olectra Greentech, a group company of MEIL, is well-known in electric bus manufacturing and insulators in India. Olectra Greentech is a joint venture between Olectra and its Chinese technology partner BYD. Olectra is now entering truck manufacturing, too.
Olectra Greentech has successfully begun 6×4 heavy-duty electric tipper trials at its plant in Telangana as part of its initiative to expand its product portfolio into the electric truck segment.
The company said that its prototype is built on a heavy-duty electric tipper platform.
In a statement, Olectra said the first of its kind truck in India, Olectra tipper, with a 220-km range on a single charge, is built with a heavy-duty bogie suspension tipper capable of managing gradability of more than 25% (scaling slopes on roads with elevation, and hill roads. The manufacturing will be scaled up in the state-of-the-art facility coming up on the outskirts of Hyderabad soon.
Olectra will continue its focus on electric buses too
KV Pradeep, Chairman and Managing Director, said "As the fossil fuel costs are skyrocketing, the electric trucks will be a game-changer in the segment. This first of its kind tipper has many super performance features. As the market is looking for cost-effective and highly efficient tippers, the Olectra has finally realised the dream as promised earlier."
Olectra has said it has plans to expand its product line by launching trucks, light commercial vehicles, three-wheelers and other EV products.
But the company's primary focus will continue to be electric buses. The Indian-Chinese joint venture has seen demand grow for electric buses, and hence the company is establishing the state-of-the-art fully-automated robotic manufacturing plant. Olectra plans to manufacture 10,000 buses per year with the expanded capacity.
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Olectra-BYD already has a production facility in Telangana where it has already been producing the nine-metre-long K7 and the K9 (12 metres).
Olectra is also successfully operating the electric bus fleet in Surat, Mumbai, Pune, Silvassa, Goa, Nagpur,Hyderabad and Dehradun. Its buses, which have a seating capacity of 33+ driver. sport electronically controlled air suspension. The buses are equipped with CCTV cameras. The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery installed in the bus enables it to travel around 200 km on a single charge, based on traffic and passenger load conditions.
Over three decades as a journalist covering current affairs, politics, sports and now technology. Former Editor of News Today, writer of humour columns across publications and a hardcore cricket and cinema enthusiast. He writes about technology trends and suggest movies and shows to watch on OTT platforms.