Mumbai: India, the entertainment capital of India, is expanding its London-style red double-decker bus into an electric vehicle almost a century after its debut. His one of the first of 200 new buses is scheduled to start operating on Mumbai’s busy roads from December, joining nearly 400 single-floor EVs already in operation.
With a population of 1.4 billion, India is the world’s third largest emitter of carbon dioxide, and the government has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2070. Some of the worst air in the world. The electric bus was developed by Switch Mobility, a subsidiary of Indian car manufacturing giant Ashok Leyland. A similar electric double-decker bus built by the company was rolled out in London in 2014.
Mahesh Babu, chief executive of Switch Mobility India, told AFP at the launch of the new fleet on Thursday: Manufactured in India, the Switch EiV 22 vehicle has 65 seats and a battery pack that provides a range of 250 km. His fossil-fuel-powered red double-decker debuted in Mumbai in 1937, and at its peak, up to 900 were used on routes around the city. His aging fleet has been phased out since the 1990s, and he now operates fewer than 50 in the city. – AFP
