Ashok Leyland (ALL) announced that its subsidiary OHM Global Mobility has bagged an order for 500 units of 12-m ultra-low floor electric buses from the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Chennai.

While 400 of these buses will be non-AC, 100 buses will be equipped with air conditioning.

With a range of over 200 kilometers per charge, these buses are ideal for Chennai’s long city routes, said the leading commercial vehicle manufacturer in a statement.

OHM is ALL’s is the electric mobility arm focused on Mobility-as-a-Service business, while Switch Mobility, another subsidiary of ALL, will supply Switch EiV12 model buses to OHM. The latter in turn will operate and maintain the buses over a period of 12 years, as per the contract awarded by MTC.

“We are committed to driving the transition to electric mobility, and this partnership with MTC is a step forward in creating cleaner, more efficient transport systems. Switch already has over 950 vehicles in operation and with this order has a healthy order book of over 2,000 vehicles,” said Ashok Leyland MD & CEO Shenu Agarwal.

The Switch EiV12 is powered by a robust 650V electric architecture and features IP67-rated batteries. It is fully wheelchair accessible.