India's emerging electric truck market set to double in FY25?

New Delhi: Though not at a scorching pace, SCVs (Small Commercial Vehicles) are leading the charge for electrification in the Indian trucking industry. According to electric CV maker Switch Mobility’s market projection, the electric truck segment in India will be between 4,000 and 6,000 units by the end of March 2025. If the market touches the more optimistic end of the projected volume bracket, then it would translate to doubling of the emerging segment, which is estimated to have sold close to 3,000 units during the last financial year.

Last mile and middle mile transportation needs are expected to fuel the demand. The Indian last mile delivery segment, for example, is expected to be a $6 billion market this year, and projected to touch $167 billion by 2027. Therefore, the focus segments for Switch Mobility’s CEO Mahesh Babu and his team “right now are the last mile and the mid-mile.” An order for 500 Switch IeV4s by Magenta Mobility, a logistics provider with a fleet size of around 2,000 EVs, also reflects the demand trend. Switch Mobility plans to service the order in a year.

Of the nearly 2,000 EVs that Magenta Mobility has, 1,900 are three-wheelers. But the ratio is going to change in the new round of fleet expansion. “We are going to buy an additional 3,000 (units), of which 1,200 vehicles are going to be four-wheelers,” Maxson Lewis, Founder-CEO, Magenta Mobility told ETAuto. Magenta Mobility plans to expand its fleet to 5,000 EVs by March 2025, for which it could spend around INR 240 crore.

As it expands its presence in the country from 18 cities, Lewis says, the fleet expansion rate will be higher in the first half of the next financial year, during which the 6-year old startup (logistics business started in 2021) plans to add another 5,000 EVs. With the demand for tailpipe emission-free vehicles from his clients is growing, Magenta Mobility expects to turn EBITDA positive in “a quarter and a half” from now. “We’re already profitable in a couple of cities,” says Lewis.

e-SCVs as growth drivers

For Switch Mobility, Magenta Mobility is “one of the first” bulk buyers of its IeV4, the first batches of which arrived in dealerships last month. The IeV4, an electrified version of the Bada Dost from Switch Mobility’s parent Ashok Leyland, has a claimed driving range of 125 km on a single charge. It’ll be followed by a smaller variant, IeV3, in a “couple of months”.

“Almost 20% of the LCV market share is with Ashok Leyland. Both the products Dost and Bada Dost are doing well. I believe with electrification there are some more segments which will be doing well, so we will start exploring that,” says Babu. And that may include overseas markets too, Switch Mobility plans to start executing its exports strategy this month, by exporting the first set of vehicles for trials.

While the truck electrification trend will continue, and cover the M&HCV segment too, the action in the short term at least will remain in the light truck segments. World’s largest truck maker Daimler Truck plans to enter the electric truck space with its eCanter, scheduled for launch in the next 6 to 12 months by Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV. Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV), which currently has a sole EV in a 5.5 tonner, plans to enter the 2.0 to 3.5 tonne e-SCV space, with deliveries planned for ‘early 2025’.