Group Synergy, known for having established the bus manufacturing firm Deccan Auto Ltd. at Hyderabad, is ready to charge up the Indian electric bus market through its brainchild AMS Electric Mobility Ltd. In this exclusive interaction with MOTORINDIA’s N. Balasubramanian, team members of AMS – M. Sowjanya, Director, GroupSynergy and Chief Strategic Officer, AMS; V.N. Ghadi, AVP, Manufacturing, AMS; Syed Zia Ahmed, Divisional Manager – Marketing, AMS; H. B. Sivuni, Head – Sales and Service, AMS; and M. Balaji Rao, Director, AMS, Corona Bus, Deccan Auto and GroupSynergy – share details about the bus project as well as the company’s roll-out strategy.
The Government of India has clearly shown its keenness on pushing electro-mobility across the country with the allotment of subsidy for 5,650 electric buses for various state transport corporations (STUs) which has resulted in a spurt in electric bus activity. Exactly 12 months back, we had done a feature about AMS Electric Mobility Ltd. (AMS) having started a project on the development of a ‘Made in India’ 12-metre electric city bus. Fast forward 12 months and the product is now homologated and ready to roll.
Excerpts from the interview:
During our interaction in September last year, you had given a brief of AMS introducing electric buses in the Indian market. Can you elaborate on the journey that has resulted in the electric bus that AMS has designed and produced?
M. Sowjanya (MS): Group Synergy has always focused on profitable innovations. Our vision has been ‘to create and lead profitable innovations for the wellbeing of people, sustainability of ecology and development of economy’. This was the direction when we planned for the Deccan Auto plant in 2015 – a modern manufacturing unit which caters to the luxury bus segment based on a monocoque design. Today there are more than 500 buses on the road and it is the same vision of bringing in ‘Made in India’ products that has led to the development of the AMS electric bus. We took the path of building the bus from scratch, as we have the required expertise in building monocoque buses.
The challenge was to make sure that we don’t end up making a retrofit bus but develop a modern electric bus. At the same time, we did not want to lose out on the experience and value that our monocoque technology could provide to the customer. To give it the best shot, we decided to make a 400 mm floor height bus which was not a product line in our diesel portfolio. This gave the electric bus its independence and yet could rope in the strengths which we had already proven with the 500 buses on road. So, in short, our bus has been developed from scratch and yet has the advantages for being proven on the road for the non-electrical systems.
Can you elaborate on the technology support that AMS has sought for the e-bus project?
MS: We were keen that we don’t end up as a body builder for an imported chassis. We had to choose a company which would be keen to support us on our bus design and develop the electric bus. CHTC of China had the required capability as well as willingness to support on this concept. Our buses have a drivetrain built for the Indian requirements by CHTC. They built a bus based on our design and ran it through rigorous testing before we finalised and built the bus here in India for homologation.
Can you share some of the features of the bus that you feel would give it an edge over competition?
V.N. Ghadi (VNG): Our buses have been designed keeping in mind the Indian road conditions, driving mannerism, overhead obstructions like crisis-crossing wires and cables and under-bridges. We have designed the buses with the batteries at the chassis level and not on the top of the bus like most other players. One of the reasons for this is to make sure the centre of gravity is lower and hence the stability of the buses is far superior. This also makes sure the batteries, which are more than half the cost of the bus, are safe from external damage. Roof-mounted battery buses will require a much more rugged bus body construction and are further exposed to body noise as the bus runs through bad roads.
In our case, since the batteries are not on the rooftop, we have given a high roof for the buses which gives them a very airy and roomy effect even if the bus is packed with passengers. The higher volume of air gives better air control and comfort for passengers and there is improved air circulation. The driver’s road visibility in our bus is one of the best in the industry and has also been provided based on the Indian road mannerisms which necessitate the driver to have visibility of the road at low levels.
What is the range per full charge that the bus is capable of running?
VNG: Each of the STUs has a different requirement when it comes to range. For a 12-metre electric bus, the bus needs to cover at least 200 km per day to break even. Our standard 12-metre bus is equipped with battery back-up to run about 200 km per charge. Our buses are available in 250, 300 and 350 km range as well, with all of them targeted more towards city operations. Smaller cities like Goa, Trivandrum, Vijayawada, Vishakapatnam, etc., are looking at plying these buses to neighbouring cities which are at a distance of less than 200 km. and cities like Mumbai are looking at plying the buses to Pune, Nashik, etc. The range is clearly a fallout of the requirement of the STUs and is all about packaging more batteries in the bus which would result in increasing the cost of the bus. In this context, optimizing the battery size is the key to lower the operating cost of the bus.
Why do you think STUs would prefer your bus to the other options available in the market?
Syed Zia Ahmed (SZA): Our diesel buses have been running on the roads for the past four years. We and our customers are aware of the strengths and weakness of the buses. They are pleased with the low running cost and better passenger comfort. Effectively, the bus is new only with reference to the drivetrain but the rest of the bus has been proven and well-understood by customers. The bus is completely made in India except the drivetrain which makes sure that the operational cost, cost of spare parts and downtime are all very low; the mechanics too know the bus quite well. The overall running cost of the bus will be lower than other buses with an imported chassis and in our case the customer also has a choice of different body types on the bus.
How geared up are you to extend after-sales service support and spare parts supply?
H.B. Sivuni (HBS): To bring in the confidence to the customers we propose to sign an annual maintenance contract (AMC) with every bus that we sell. We believe that the customers’ business and expertise should be in running the bus optimally and handle their business operations; maintaining the bus is not the customers’ strength. We look at every bus that we sell as our bus till it is decommissioned; this makes our task easier and helps us plan the service and spare parts’ support more efficiently. Healthy periodic maintenance is the key to low downtime. We will be deploying our service teams at the depot level and also train all the drivers and cleaners to handle and observe the critical parameters of the bus.
The buses are provided with many sensors to detect signals which will help in identification of the problem prior to failure which will reduce the chances of any breakdown. We believe that service and spare parts’ support are the key for sales. The first sale could be easy on a pricing decision but the repeat sale is going to be on the performance of the bus and the support that we offer to the customer in putting the bus back on the road in case of a breakdown. This is why we have both sales and service functions being headed by the same person as it makes sure what is committed during the sale is adhered to as we take care of the bus during its lifetime.
How do you plan to take care of the requirements in terms of charging infrastructure?
HBS: Charging stations are a part of electric buses and dedicated charging stations are required for STU operations. It is important that we decide the charging stations and deploy them at the required points. We would take up the AMC of the charging stations and make sure they work 24×7. Any failure on this front will put the buses off-road as they need to be charged on a daily basis unlike diesel buses which have an option of refuelling at any other outlet in a short time. As of now we plan to import the charging stations but are working on an Indian source that will be available in the next nine months’ time.
Have you offered your electric bus to any STU or organisation?
HBS: There was a tender by BHEL 10 months back for designing and manufacturing an electric bus and getting it homologated by Indian authorities. They wanted a bus that they could market and subsequently manufacture in-house. Corona won the bid and in just nine months, we have designed, manufactured and got the bus homologated in the name of BHEL. The bus was launched by BHEL in February 2019 at the Future Mobility Exhibition at Bengaluru. This shows our strength in design and development of electric buses.
Looking beyond the electric bus that has been developed, what more do you have in the pipeline?
M.Balaji Rao (MBR): Our 9-metre bus and our luxury coaches on the EV platform are in final stages of design and will be going for homologation very soon. We are working on making the charging station modules in India in partnership with a Pune-based company which has developed the expertise we are looking for. We have targeted to complete the development and trials in nine months. We will be putting up a battery module assembly plant. We have completed the initial work for the activity with the construction set to begin in the next two months. We are look at commencing production around the middle of 2020. Our battery modules will be made available to the entire EV market in general and not just as a back-end to our requirement.
We are in discussions with other EV manufacturers to ascertain the demand and the technical specifications for their requirements. We are also actively working on the development of a mini truck which will be ready as a prototype in the next five to six months. This would be a mini truck with a payload of less than two tons and a range of 150 km. India is moving towards e-mobility and therefore we will be taking up all the required steps to be a meaningful player in this space. We have lined up investments of about Rs 300 crore over the next 15 months and are confident of playing a vital role in making EVs a viable solution for Indian roads.