EKA Mobility developing fast charging technology that can charge e-buses in upto 120 seconds
The company’s charging technology, known as ‘Flash charging', can charge electric buses in 20 to 120 seconds, depending on the battery’s capacity.
Electric bus manufacturer EKA Mobility on Tuesday said the company is developing an indigenous platform for electric buses with ultra fast charging technology.
According to Rohit Srivastava, Chief Growth Officer at the company, these buses can be charged within 20 to 120 seconds depending on capacity. This would eliminate long waits for battery top-ups. For context, a typical e-bus uses overhead charging units spaced usually 20 km to 30 km apart on usual routes.
The bus will have a capacity to seat 130 passengers and offers a significant advantage to India's urban public transport system particularly Tier I and Tier II cities where frequency, passenger handling capacity and operational efficiency in suburban routes and ring roads are critical, Srivastava said in a statement.
According to the company, these buses have the potential to serve leading Intercity corridors like Delhi-Chandigarh, Mumbai-Pune, Delhi-Jaipur, Delhi-Agra, and Chennai-Bengaluru.
Mint had reported that this new line of electric buses were being developed by Tata Motors Ltd and EKA Mobility.
The development comes after the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) said that it had raised Rs 200 crore in funding from private equity firm ENAM Holdings to expand its product portfolio for both goods and passenger vehicles and scale up its manufacturing capacity and plants.
Currently, EKA Mobility has an order book of 3,000 buses and more from incoming orders placed by state governments and private players. The company is looking to deliver between 2,000 to 2,500 buses this financial year, the company’s founder, Sudhir Mehta told YourStory.
Edited by Jyoti Narayan