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PMI Electro Mobility Investing Rs 300 Crore to Operationalise Commercial EV Manufacturing

PMI Electro Mobility plans to invest around Rs 300 crore in Chakan, Pune, to build the country's largest electric commercial vehicle production facility.

May 12, 2022. By News Bureau

Construction on the unit, which will be capable of producing electric buses and other environmentally friendly commercial vehicles, will begin soon. PMI Electro Mobility, according to Manvi Jain, Director, PMI Group, plans to commission the facility in the next 12-18 months.

PMI Electro Mobility plans to invest around Rs 300 crore in Chakan, Pune, to build the country's largest electric commercial vehicle production facility.

"We have the capacity to manufacture eight buses per day at Dharuhera, which is the largest in the country. Going forward, among others, we want to launch intercity buses and electric trucks. We need scalability, have state-of-the-art infrastructure. We are building the second unit over 33 acres, which will be more than double the size of Dharuhera," Jain said.

Foton India and PMI Electro have a 70:30 joint venture. It plans to invest Rs 250-300 crore to get the first phase of the project up and running. While the promoters would make the initial investment with their own money, they are in talks with Indian financial investors to raise additional funds. Beiqi Foton is a project technology partner.

PMI Electro's Chakan facility will have an initial capacity of 2500 commercial cars per year, which may be raised to 3600 units per year with little fine-tuning and no large capital expenditure.

"We will focus on manufacturing electric commercial vehicles at Chakan. There is policy support from the government. There is a lot of untapped potential in the space. The only hindrance is charging infrastructure, work towards which has also started happening. We are in discussions on our first product," Jain said.

Electric bus demand is expected to be approximately 300,000 units over the next three years, according to industry estimates. The electric truck market is seven times the size of the bus market.

To be sure, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland have also developed electric vehicles in the small commercial vehicle category, with an emphasis on last-mile delivery. However, Jain believes there is sufficient market opportunity.

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Sustainable Transport

PMI Electro Mobility

Electric commercial vehicle

Production

Technology

Financial