Ashok Leyland To Establish Mother EV Plant In India Through Its UK Subsidiary Switch: Report

Multinational automotive manufacturer Ashok Leyland will be expediting its electric vehicle (EV) business by establishing a ‘mother plant’ in India under its UK-subsidiary Switch.

Therefore, Switch UK will institute an Indian entity that will set up the plant and Leyland’s EV business will be subsequently shifted to the former. Accordingly, Switch will also be developing EV-specific platforms in electric light commercial vehicles and buses as well.

Moreover, Ashok Leyland’s current EV products that include e-buses delivered already to a few cities like Patna and Ahmedabad will now come under Switch’s aegis.

The Hinduja Group-owned company is set to ‘debottleneck the LCV factories’ and further work on the ‘safety and regulations and residual spend’ by shelling out a sum of around Rs 750 crore. Ashok Leyland CEO Gopal Mahadevan explained that they will be funding capex as their debt equity ratio is quite low.

The company has a debt of Rs 2600 crore in its books as of 31^st March, 2021, Economic Times reports.

“The EV investments for Switch will not come out of Ashok Leyland,” Mahadevan was quoted as clarifying in the aforementioned report.