JSW Beats Tata and Ashok Leyland to Win 1,200 Electric Buses in PM-eBus Sewa

From Steel to Buses

The Sajjan Jindal-owned JSW Group has raced ahead of Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland to emerge as the lowest bidder for about 1,200 electric buses in a 4,054-bus tender under the government's PM-eBus Sewa scheme. The tender was initially planned for 3,604 buses and was expanded to include demand from Haryana, giving JSW a sizeable foothold in a market long dominated by legacy bus makers.

Bidding was aggressive. In one Madhya Pradesh lot, PMI Electro quoted Rs 53.60 per km against JSW's Rs 53.79, a gap of just 19 paise. Several contests were decided by less than Rs 1 per km. PMI Electro was the biggest single winner with 1,248 buses, followed by Sai Green Projects with 1,236 and JSW with 1,200, won across Karnataka and Haryana.

The result is a significant setback for established players. Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and VE Commercial Vehicles failed to secure the volumes they traditionally command, while newer entrants such as Eka Mobility and PMI Electro have taken roughly two-thirds of the more than 20,000 electric buses tendered in the past year. JSW entered the business through JSW Greentech in 2024, and its 90-acre plant at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar has capacity for 10,000 buses a year, sold under the Ampstar brand. It bid through its own operator, JSW Eco Mobility. AUTOINDIA's home page follows the electric bus push.

These tenders work on a gross cost contract model, where fleet operators buy the buses and run them while state transport agencies pay per kilometre for 10 to 12 years. Such buses typically cost Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.25 crore each. India registered 5,358 electric buses in FY26, with electric penetration of about 4.5 per cent of total bus registrations. You can read more of our commercial vehicle coverage.

What this means for you: if you use city buses, this tender points to more electric routes in smaller towns and cities over the next few years, since PM-eBus Sewa offers operational support of Rs 24 per km for 12-metre buses. For the industry, it is a warning that manufacturing scale alone no longer decides who wins government orders; aggressive pricing and long-term operations matter just as much.

(Sources: Mint, Financial Express, CESL PM-eBus Sewa tender documents, Vahan data)