zingbus Partners With NHEV To Expand India's Intercity E-mobility Cohort

Shared surface mobility brand, zingbus has partnered with the National Highways for Electric Vehicles (NHEV) an EoDB pilot initiative, for a joint e-mobility project aiming to help the private diesel bus operators convert to accepting and working with electric vehicles. 

By deploying a successful pilot, zingbus expects the vehicles’ to be more profitable with a 15-20 per cent decrease in the running cost and places a comparison exercise between ‘Electric Buses’ and the ‘Diesel Buses. Henceforth, the pilot’s success will motivate the bus owners to buy electric buses and switch to green mobility for a sustainable future.

Speaking on the strategic partnership, Prashant Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, zingbus, highlighted - “Today, the biggest segment of the intercity bus travel domain is the diesel bus fleet owned by private players. Their confidence towards electric buses is way lower; henceforth, zingbus has deployed this operational pilot to turn them towards accepting the affordability and profitability of EVs. The National Highway for Electric Vehicles is playing a crucial role in promoting the adoption of electric buses by creating an enabling environment for private fleet operators, and zingbus will be the needed catalyst for the emerging project.” 

The ongoing pilot project for NHEV has shown promising results. Electric vehicles have demonstrated a significantly lower cost of operation compared to diesel buses. Electric buses have also shown higher reliability and lower downtime, resulting in improved passenger satisfaction and higher revenues.

Abhijeet Sinha, National Project Director, NHEV, reflecting on the project, stated - “This partnership with NHEV will enable Zingbus to bring diesel bus owners into electric bus operations by taking away operational uncertainties and providing opportunities to buy electric buses at 30 per cent lesser upfront cost as buses are delivered with batteries on a subscription model, owned by its operator. NHEV will off-take charging infrastructure setup and operation costs from its Bus fleet operators, a major hurdle today, and proven to be an additional capital cost for private bus owners who wish to buy E-busses. This partnership will bring ease of doing business for diesel bus owners to switch to electric and translate its actual lower running cost to passenger tickets with higher amenities and encourage customers to use global standard clean public transport.”

NHEV and Zingbus together will build the confidence of private operators to accelerate their transition to buying electric buses with enablers like Roadside Assistance (RSA), Battery-as-a-Subscription(BaaS), 30 per cent Lesser upfront cost and Minimum Guaranteed(MG) bookings from the tourism industry.