Exclusive: Olectra Targets 1,200 Electric Bus Deliveries a Quarter in FY28

Olectra Greentech is targeting electric bus deliveries of around 1,200 vehicles per quarter in FY28 as the company looks to substantially scale volumes from current levels.

The electric bus manufacturer, which delivered 358 vehicles during the latest quarter, plans to progressively increase deliveries over the coming quarters.

“We can reach up to 600 vehicles per month in the next one to one-and-a-half years — that’s our target,” Mahesh Babu, Managing Director, Olectra Greentech, told Autocar Professional.

“In the next two-quarter period, we want to deliver about 600-plus vehicles. Then in the following two quarters, we want to go to about 700-800 vehicles, and the ultimate aim is to reach about 1,200 vehicles per quarter in the next financial year,” he said.

The planned ramp-up comes as Olectra has an order book of more than 8,000 electric buses. The company expects to deliver around 2,000-2,500 vehicles during FY27, although the pace of execution will depend partly on how quickly customers and supporting infrastructure are ready to absorb the vehicles.

Production Isn’t The Only Constraint

Olectra does not see manufacturing capacity as the principal bottleneck to increasing electric bus deliveries.

“The challenge is not production — it’s supply chain, and also absorption in the market,” Babu said.

Unlike conventional vehicle sales, large electric bus deployments depend on several pieces of infrastructure being ready simultaneously. Depot preparation, power availability and the timing of vehicle deployment can influence when buses can actually enter operation.

“If you look at e-bus adoption, depot readiness and flag-off happen suddenly, and then there is a gap, so that is a challenge,” Babu said.

“Production capacity is only one piece of the puzzle. In EV, you have to look at the whole ecosystem. When the ecosystem is ready to absorb, we are ready to deliver from production.”

The company expects around 2,000-2,500 vehicles from its existing order book to be delivered during FY27. Babu said faster market absorption could allow Olectra to increase that number, but government tendering processes and infrastructure readiness remain important variables.

“The government tendering process, depot readiness, power availability and infrastructure preparation all take time,” he said.

E-Bus Adoption Continues To Rise

Olectra also expects the underlying electric bus market to expand.

According to Babu, EV penetration in the bus segment reached close to 7% during the quarter, compared with around 4.7-5% last year.

“What I am seeing is that it is improving quarter on quarter, year on year,” he said. “The adoption is clearly going up point by point, which is the good part of it.”

Olectra has also crossed 4,000 cumulative electric vehicle deliveries, according to Babu, as the installed fleet continues to expand.

Focus On Profitable Orders

Even as it looks to scale volumes, Olectra says it does not intend to chase orders at the expense of profitability.

The company recently secured around 1,085 buses under the PM E-Drive programme, with Babu saying Olectra’s approach is to participate in contracts where it believes the economics remain sustainable.

“We want only profitable business,” he said. “We are not interested in taking orders just for the sake of valuation.”

Babu said aggressive bidding in the market has meant Olectra has stayed away from some orders.

“Some of the numbers being quoted in the market are very aggressive, which is why we are not winning some orders — the orders we do win, we are profitable on,” he said.

Olectra’s revenue growth significantly outpaced bottom-line growth during the quarter. The company reported a top line of around Rs 575 crore, up 66%, while EBITDA increased around 30%.

Babu attributed much of the impact on EBITDA to Olectra’s energy division rather than its electric bus operations. He said polymer prices rose around 70% during the quarter, affecting the polymer insulator business, while the bus division saw only a marginal impact on contribution.

Higher depreciation and finance costs associated with the company’s investments also weighed on PBT and PAT.

“The plant which we productionized in Q4 of last year — the EMIs and finance costs came in this quarter,” Babu said. “It’s basically a strong delivery for this quarter, and building for the future, and hence investments and depreciation play a role.”

For Olectra, achieving the targeted increase in deliveries will therefore depend not only on manufacturing capability but also on supply chains, depot and power infrastructure, and the pace at which electric buses can be absorbed into operations.