Ashok Leyland celebrates 70th anniversary with opening of new electric vehicle facility in Ennore

Chennai / Ennore - Commercial vehicle manufacturer, Ashok Leyland Ltd of Chennai, a subsidiary of the Hinduja Group, has inaugurated its advanced electric vehicle (AEV) facility at its Ennore plant in its 70^th year of operations.

The new facility includes engineering, prototyping and testing facilities for electric motors, battery modules and packs, as well as a power electronics laboratory with fully integrated capabilities to design, prototype, test/validate various e-mobility solutions. The facility is supported by the ‘e Mob tech centre’ located at the IIT Madras Research Park in Taramani, near Chennai.

Vinod K. Dasari, managing director, Ashok Leyland Ltd, said: “In our 70th year, we are laying the foundation for our future. The EV Centre in Ennore will give us the edge throughout the evolution of eMobility. Currently, we are the only OEM globally to offer different energy management strategies and an architecture which is modular. Our plan is to start working on new product platforms in EVs such as eLCV, low floor city buses, last mile connectivity and power solutions products. We have also launched a host of new business models including eMaaS (eMobility as a Service) and eMSol (eMobility as a Solution) which ensures that we are closer to our end customers and capture more value. The government’s ‘eMobility’ vision is an opportunity for the country to save foreign exchange and to reduce its oil dependence. For the industry and us, it is an opportunity to reduce total costs of ownership and, more importantly, be at the very cutting edge of technology for the first time. This is truly in line with our philosophy of Aapki Jeet. Hamari Jeet.”

Karthick Athmanathan - EV's & eMobility, business unit head at Ashok Leyland Ltd, said: “Besides working on multiple technologies and platforms for our products, we are creating new disruptive products and services that will change the very paradigm of commercial vehicle mobility. The focus is on a massive number of internal initiatives for safety, reliability and optimizing total cost of ownership. We are committed to exploit new opportunities in terms of efficiency, energy, geometry and business models which Electric Drive Trains offers. At present, we have a capacity to take care of about 5000-10000 vehicles per annum, with different battery and charging options. We have leveraged start-ups in India as well as from abroad, to bring in innovative yet cost-effective solutions that are offered by us on a turnkey basis. The idea is to have a mature and dynamic portfolio of products, services and solutions when the volume market takes off in a few years.”