Ashok Leyland’s EV subsidiary Switch Mobility has officially unveiled its brand-new electric mini truck range ‘IeV’ series in the Indian market. The ‘IeV3’ and ‘IeV4’ e-trucks will be manufactured at the parent company’s Hosur facility in Tamil Nadu, with the customer deliveries scheduled to start from January 2024.
Earlier at the Auto Expo 2023 in January this year, the prototypes of these new electric LCVs were displayed for the first time. Built on the 330 V modular and scalable EV architecture, the IeV series boasts a payload capacity of 1.2 tonnes (IeV3) and 1.7 tonnes (IeV4), higher than 600 kgs payload capacity offered by its only contender in the Indian market – the Tata Ace EV.
“For a customer who runs a pick-up for about 150 km a day, the new e-trucks will provide savings of up to ₹17,000 per month compared with a diesel-power vehicle. This will be net savings after paying EMI, fuel, and maintenance costs,” commented Mahesh Babu, CEO, Switch Mobility.
He had further added, “While there is growing preference for green vehicles by the e-commerce players and others, buyers in this segment are looking for vehicles that help them incur less expenditure and more margins. I believe there is a tectonic shift happening in last-mile and mid-mile delivery segments. This calls for a new set of products and we have configured IeV series vehicles based on substantial customer feedback and the shift happening in this segment”.
Switch Mobility has reportedly invested about ₹ 100 crores on the development of the new IeV series of electric mini-trucks. The company is also said to have secured pre-bookings for about 13,000 units of these EVs in the country already, from customers including e-commerce giants Amazon, Flipkart, Transworld and logistics firms such as TVS Logistics.
Further, the EV maker is also hopeful of exporting the India-made IeV electric trucks to neighboring markets such as Nepal, Bangladesh, South East Asian nations, Middle-East, and GCC nations, where its parent Ashok Leyland already has a base for LCVs.
