EKA Mobility puts 15 electric buses on Zanzibar's roads

In its Africa export push, as built from our earlier interview, which flagged that EKA's exports had begun in Zimbabwe and South Africa on a localisation-led strategy.

EKA Mobility, the electric-vehicle arm of India's Pinnacle Industries, has begun exporting electric buses to Africa, with 15 of its 12-metre buses flagged off in Zanzibar by the island's president, Hussein Ali Mwinyi, and commercial service due to start on August 1.

Indian manufacturers have talked up "make in India for the world" in EVs; a fleet of Indian-built electric buses entering service on a foreign public network is a more concrete test of that than most announcements. For EKA, public-transport deployments double as reference projects that can unlock larger orders. The company says 35 buses have been ordered and the fleet should reach 150 by year-end; Zanzibar's government, running the programme through its social security fund with Indian operator Global Rapid Transport, puts the eventual goal at 500 buses.

EKA, a subsidiary of Pinnacle Industries founded by Sudhir Mehta and built with Dutch bus maker VDL Group, is approved under India's auto PLI scheme. Alongside GRT it is training local staff on operations, maintenance and software, and it has said it plans a completely-knocked-down assembly plant in Ethiopia as it expands across East Africa. Order values were not disclosed. Vijay Yelne, EKA's president for export marketing, called the launch proof that Indian-made EVs can meet international markets' needs.