Expanding its network in multiple cities, GreenCell Mobility has become the country’s first inter-city electric bus mobility player with services launched in multiple cities and plans to become a pan-India shared electric mobility player.
GreenCell has launched Nuego, their pan-India inter-city electric mobility coach brand. The company has launched the NueGO branded lounges.
The first of these lounges have come up in Delhi and Indore. NueGo is the first private electric brand to operate from Inter State Bus Terminal (ISBT) Delhi, as its boarding station.
GreenCell Mobility has built a platform to provide Electric Mobility-as-a-Service (eMaaS). GreenCell has been promoted by Eversource Capital. The company has invested a mix of equity and debt of `1,500 crore for this e-bus business, Devndra Chawla, CEO, GreenCell Mobility said.
In the B2G segment, GreenCell Mobility has already acquired the state transport undertaking contracts for 900 electric buses across 25 cities in India, Chawla said.
The most recent agreement was for 570 electric buses from the transport department, government of NCT Delhi. Around 1,000 buses are being deployed in the B2G segment.
GreenCell deployed the first intercity e-bus for the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation with 50 electric buses for intercity travel across Maharashtra in Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nasik and Solapur. The company has entered Gross Cost Contract (GCC) for the B2G segment and contracts range around `40-60 per km. The e-buses have a range of 300-350 km on a single charge and are doing a run of around 600 km a day.
In the B2C segment, GreenCell’s NueGo brand is currently plying its fleet on the Bhopal-Indore, Delhi-Chandigarh, Delhi-Jaipur routes and will soon be plying on the Delhi-Agra and Chennai-Pondicherry routes. The company is also entering the Southern market with Bengaluru, Tirupati, Hyderabad and Vijayawada routes. “NueGo plans to roll out services across 30 cities with 350 electric buses. The company’s current fleet size is 70 buses and will go to 100 soon,” he said.
According to Chawla, NueGo is looking at positioning itself in the B2C segment as a more comfortable and convenient inter-city travel option for travellers with a feature-rich service. For enhanced safety, the NueGo e-buses come with GPS, CC TV surveillance, driver breath analyser, driver monitoring systems, speed limit checks and driver assistance systems. Chawla says they would offer a flight-like experience in the NueGo passengers coaches. So commuters would be guided to their pre-booked seat, presented with water and tissues when on-boarded, mobile charging points, more reclining seats and leg space with trained and courteous coach hosts.
NueGo has gone further and tried to provide customers with an experience similar to airline travel and introduced NueGo Lounges, a place where travellers could wait for their coaches. Currently, the brand has two NueGo Lounges which are in Indore and Delhi at ISBT.
The company is also developing charging infrastructure across routes where the buses are going to be plying. The electric buses are being sourced from PMI Electro Mobility, Azad Group and Veera Vahana.
GreenCell Mobility is backed by EverSource Capital, an equal joint venture between Everstone Group and Lightsource bp, which is into the development and management of solar energy projects.
GreenCell received a $ 55 million sanction from the Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Clean Technology Fund.