Electric trucks will be tested along the 350-kilometre Bengaluru-Chennai highway corridor in India as part of a demonstration project launched by Laneshift, a zero-emission international freight initiative designed to accelerate the development and deployment of zero-emission electric trucks and charging infrastructure across major cities in India and Latin America.
EV trucks’ operational viability and cost-effectiveness in long-distance transportation will be examined as the trucks move commercial goods throughout the corridor.
Indian commercial vehicle manufacturer Ashok Leyland, e-mobility-as-a-service company BillionE, Indian EV charging network Chargezone, and delivery giant Amazon are important partners in the partnership. BillionE will run 20 heavy-duty Ashok Leyland EV trucks, of up to 55t, of varying payloads for six months, starting along NH48, which connects Bengaluru and Chennai, collecting real-time fleet data and testing the technical, financial, environmental, and social viability of switching to electric freight.
Electric Trucks Piloting in India
Amazon will also use the corridor, facilitated by Chargezone’s charging infrastructure solutions. “By deploying electric trucks along the Bengaluru-Chennai corridor, we aim to showcase their robust performance and underscore our dedication to zero-emission solutions,” says Shenu Agarwal, managing director at Ashok Leyland. According to Laneshift, the demonstration project is the result of a year-long partnership that gathered opinions from both public and private players. Before deciding on the Bengaluru-Chennai route, the team examined eight highway corridors and conferred with more than fifty companies, financial institutions, and government authorities.
The outcomes of the study will be utilized to create a national EV highway roadmap for India and offer vital data that will assist in informing stakeholders of demand. According to Laneshift, taking the concept from demonstration to execution with scalable, bankable solutions would support the expansion of EV freight across India.
Laneshift was introduced in 2023 by C40 Cities, a climate-focused organization that represents 96 cities worldwide that account for one-twelfth of the world’s population and one-fourth of its economy, and the Climate Pledge, a pledge co-founded by Amazon and the non-profit organization Global Optimism in 2019 to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040 through decarbonization and high-quality offsets, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement and which currently has over 525 signatories.
