Tata Motors won INR.5,000cr Indian Government Tender for Electric Buses

Tata Motors has emerged as the lowest bidder for the central government tender of procurement of 5,450 electric buses across selected cities in the country, valued at approximately Rs. 5,000 crore, with a contract valid for a period of 12 years.

The tender was floated by Convergence Energy Services Ltd. (CESL) under the FAME II scheme and the procured buses will be deployed in five Indian cities, namely Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Surat, and Kolkata.

Bidders

The participants in the bidding for these procurement of electric buses were,

• Tata Motors,
• Switch Mobility (Ashok Leyland's EV division),
• VECV (a joint venture between Eicher Motors and Volvo Group), and
• Evey Trans (of the Olectra Group).
  

Bids: 9-meter and 12-meter buses

The process was held across five categories, and the margin between the lowest and second-lowest bidders in all of the categories was around Rs. 10.

The five categories for the bidding were,

• 12-meter low-floor non-AC
• 12-meter low-floor AC
  
• 9-meter standard-floor non-AC
• 9-meter standard-floor AC
  
• 12-meter standard-floor non-AC buses
  

Tata Motors had quoted price as follows in their bid,

• 12-meter low-floor non-AC, INR. 43.49/km per vehicle
• 12-meter low-floor AC, INR. 44.99/km per vehicle
  
• 9-meter standard-floor non-AC at INR. 39.21/km.
• 9-meter standard-floor AC at INR. 41.45/km
• 12-meter standard-floor non-AC, it bid INR. 41.45/km

Tata Motors expressed its issued a statement after winning the bid as,

'Tata Motors committed to providing sustainable transport solutions'

"We are delighted to learn that we are the lowest bidder for the prestigious tender from Convergence Energy Services Ltd. (CESL). Tata Motors is committed to providing green, safe, and sustainable transport solutions across the country. We await a formal communication from CESL."

Outline

These procured Tata's electric buses will be operational for the next 12 years and will cover around 4.71 billion kilometers collectively in their lifetime. As per the WLTP calculations, this will mitigate CO2 tailpipe emissions equivalent of 3.31 million tons, which would have consumed 1.88 billion liters of diesel/CNG/fossil fuel and not to forget the additional consumables like engine lubricant oil and the wear and spares in maintaining the ICE buses.

Conservation of the environment is only possible from switching towards cleaner fuel with less or no emissions, to which FAME II is aimed as the core motive. This tender is also said to create additional 25,000 job opportunities, out of which around 10% will be reserved for women.