Tata Wins Record Contract For Electric Buses Worth Rs 5,000 Crores

Tata Motors was the lowest bidder in the tender floated by Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) and will now supply 5,450 electric buses worth Rs 5,000 crores

In a massive tender for 5,450 electric buses floated by Convergence Energy Services Ltd (CESL) under the FAME II scheme, Tata Motors has emerged as the lowest bidder. The tenders were opened by Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) on Tuesday and contained the largest ever aggregation of 5,450 buses across five major cities of Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Surat

Other automakers who took part in this tender were Switch Mobility – the electric vehicle counterpart of Ashok Leyland, Evey Trans of the Olectra group and VECV – a JV between Volvo Group and Eicher Motors.

After being declared as the lowest bidder for all five categories of the tender, Tata Motors will go on to supply 5,450 electric buses worth Rs 5,000 crores under. The margin of difference between L1 and L2 bidders in all categories was Rs 10.

India’s Largest Electric Bus Tender

The bidding was conducted across 5 categories that included 12 meter low floor AC and non AC e-buses, 12 meter Standard floor non-AC and 9 meter standard floor AC and non-AC buses. The prices quoted by Tata Motors were the lowest ever and were on par or close to operational cost of diesel buses.

The price quoted for 12 meter low floor non AC bus is Rs 43.49 per km while for the 9 meter non AC bus this goes down to Rs 39.21 per km. Quoted price stands at Rs 47.49 per km for 12 meter low floor AC bus and at Rs 44.99 per km for 12 meter standard floor AC bus. The lowest bid from Tata Motors for the 9 meter standard floor AC bus was at Rs 41.45 per km. Prices quoted are also inclusive of the cost of electricity for charging.

As against Tata Motors’ lowest bid of Rs 44.99 per km for the 12 meter standard floor AC electric bus, Switch Mobility had quoted Rs 53.99 per km while for the 9 meter AC bus Evey Trans quoted Rs 54.27 per km and Rs 53.12 per km for non AC. The buses will take advantage of the FAME II subsidy offered by the Government of India which in turn will relate to Rs 361 crores which could be used to procure additional e-buses.

e-buses to save 1.88 billion liters of fossil fuel

The terms of contract are for a period of 12 years, with assured 10 lakh kms per bus. As per calculations, the electric buses from Tata Motors will operate around 4.71 billion kms over the next 12 years. This will help save 1.88 billion liters of fossil fuel and result in 3.31 million tons of CO2 tailpipe emissions, making strong progress in terms of climate change.

As a part of this tender, there will be a total of 25,000 job opportunities raised out of which 10 percent is reserved for women. This does not include any added employment created through new manufacturing facilities.