Secrets to building winning electric vehicle fleets for trucks and buses

This is an excerpt from the industry report ’Fleet Electrification Trends & Strategies in India’ prepared by Nomura Research Institute Consulting & Solutions India Pvt. Ltd, and launched during ELECTRICON 2025 by EVreporter. Download the full report here.

Key Success Factors for Fleet Operators

Fleet operators that want to run electric trucks and buses at scale need four things to fall into place at the same time. First, India now has more than 26,000 public fast-charging points on record. Because new chargers follow major highways at regular intervals, drivers no longer worry about being stranded between cities. Shorter gaps between stops make it easier to design routes that stay within a battery’s range.

Second, almost every new heavy-duty charger and vehicle now uses the CCS-II connector. When every plug fits every socket, fleets do not have to buy special adapters or sign multiple vendor contracts. Standardisation also speeds up each charging stop, trimming precious minutes that would otherwise eat into a driver’s duty cycle.

Source: Desktop Research, NRI Analysis

Third, national policy is finally pointing directly at commercial vehicles, not just passenger cars. The government’s new “PM E-DRIVE” programme puts e-trucks, e-buses and even electric ambulances on its priority list. That signal matters: once operators see a clear, long-term subsidy window, they feel safer placing large purchase orders and investing in depot infrastructure.

The fourth factor tackles the biggest pain point of all—high upfront cost. Under gross-cost-contract (GCC) tenders, vehicle ownership shifts to a financier or an original-equipment manufacturer. Fleet operators simply pay a fixed rupee-per-kilometre fee while the owner guarantees vehicle availability. This lease-and-pay-per-use model keeps balance sheets light and gives cash-strapped state transport undertakings a way to modernise without huge capital outlays.

When dense charging, a single fast-charge standard, supportive policy and cap-ex-free leasing line up, the risks that once held fleets back—range anxiety, downtime, policy uncertainty and balance-sheet stress—shrink sharply. The result is higher vehicle uptime, clearer cost forecasts and faster, safer expansion of electric fleets across India’s highways and city routes alike.

Strategies for Fleet Acquisition, Management, and Maintenance

Running a high-uptime electric fleet is about smart contracts and data-driven tools as much as the vehicles themselves. Big wins come from ideas that are easy to adopt yet deliver major savings. Bidding for buses or trucks under gross-cost contracts, where an OEM or investor owns the asset and the operator pays only a rupee-per-kilometre fee, removes the burden of upfront capital while guaranteeing availability. Adding battery-as-a-service deepens that benefit, because the most expensive component—about half the vehicle cost—can be swapped or charged separately, keeping trucks moving. Front-loading state and central subsidies and locking in buy-back or extended warranties further cut risk at acquisition.

Source: NRI Analysis

Digital tools deliver the next layer of value. Cloud dispatch platforms automatically route a vehicle to the nearest charger using live state-of-charge data. Open-API charger directories erase “where do I plug in?” confusion, while AIS-140 telematics and tyre sensors trim idle time and wasted energy. Predictive analytics goes further, flagging vibration or temperature issues before they cause breakdowns. Finally, sharing workshops with OEM partners and planning for second-life battery use turns maintenance from a cost centre into an earnings stream. Together, these steps create an electric fleet ready for routes.

Talent and Workforce Training for EV Fleets

A switch to electric fleets demands more than swapping engines for batteries; it requires people who can operate, maintain, and drive these new machines safely and efficiently. India now has a clear pathway for building that workforce. The Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC) has created 20+ electric-vehicle “Qualification Packs,” covering roles from entry-level assembly operators to senior service technicians. As these job standards are nationally recognised, fleet owners can recruit against a common skills taxonomy and design learning-and-development plans that slot directly into their depots.

Safety sits at the heart of every course. Each qualification embeds high-voltage protocols: insulated tools, lock-out/tag-out steps, and personal protective equipment rules aligned to the AIS-156 standard. By teaching these practices from day one, workshops cut the risk of arc flashes and battery fires, which in turn lowers insurance premiums. For drivers, the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) offers eco-efficiency modules that focus on regenerative braking and smooth throttle control. Real-world pilots show that trained e-bus drivers can trim traction-energy use by seven to ten per cent on city routes—an operating-expense gain achieved without spending a single rupee on hardware.

Scale is delivered through a “master-trainer cascade.” Under ASDC’s Training-of-Trainers model, one certified instructor can upskill twenty-five to thirty depot technicians every quarter. A garage running fifty buses, therefore, reaches full electric-vehicle competence in less than six months, even if it starts with zero EV experience. Because the curriculum is modular, operators can blend classroom sessions with on-the-job mentoring, keeping vehicles on the road while staff build skills.

Together, nationally recognised roles, embedded safety, efficiency coaching, and rapid cascade training create an EV-ready workforce that spans every depot function. These pipelines remove a critical bottleneck in India’s electrification journey, ensuring that hardware investments are matched by human capability and that electric fleets run safely, economically, and at scale.

Leveraging Data Analytics and IoT for Fleet Efficiency

Electric fleets generate a steady stream of data every time a vehicle moves, plugs in, or idles. When this information is captured and analysed in real time, operators can turn what used to be guesswork into precise, money-saving decisions.

The starting point is “always-on” telematics. Under the AIS-140 standard, every bus or truck transmits live GPS position, speed, and battery state-of-charge to the control room. Dispatchers can reroute vehicles around traffic or bad weather and, more importantly, receive automatic battery-health warnings before a fault leaves a driver stranded. Because the system also tracks state-of-health degradation, depots can retire or repurpose packs before range loss becomes a problem.

Data doesn’t stop at the vehicle. From 2024, the Ministry of Power rules require every public charger to publish live status and pricing through an open API. The EV-Yatra portal consumes this feed, so route-planning software can see which chargers are free, their power rating, and the exact tariff at any hour of the day. Trucks can now schedule refuelling stops when solar-rich “day tariffs” are roughly 30 percent cheaper than the evening peak.

Predictive maintenance closes another costly gap. Energy-service company EESL tracks motor temperature and torque signatures across more than 1,500 government EVs. Machine-learning models sift the data and flag anomalies, prompting workshops to service a component before it fails. Early results show a 12 per cent cut in unplanned downtime and a 20 per cent extension in overall asset life—proof that cloud analytics pays for itself.

Finally, depot energy-management software ties everything together. By matching Bureau of Energy Efficiency time-of-day tariffs with trip schedules, fleets have shifted over 60 per cent of charging to sunlit hours, trimming electricity bills by about one-fifth. In short, real-time data streams, open APIs, and predictive algorithms are turning electric-fleet operations from a logistical headache into a finely tuned, cost-efficient system.

Partnerships and Ecosystem Collaboration

India’s push for zero-emission fleets is moving faster when companies join forces instead of working alone. A first example is the alliance between the state-owned oil marketing companies—Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum—and charge-point operators. Together, they are installing more than 7,400 direct-current fast chargers on existing fuel-station forecourts. Because the land and power lines are already in place, private bus and truck fleets can top up at highway locations without building expensive green-field depots. The central government has backed the roll-out with an ₹800-crore grant under FAME-II, turning a potential cost barrier into a shared national asset.

Collaboration also helps buyers pool demand. The National Electric Bus Program, which targets 50,000 e-buses, provides city transport undertakings with a ready-made set of RFP templates and risk allocation clauses. Private operators can copy these word for word, saving months of legal work and entering tenders with clear rules on battery warranties, availability penalties and payment security. By aggregating orders, cities win lower per-bus prices, while manufacturers gain the scale to localise components.

Not every partnership is about batteries. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has funded five hydrogen mobility pilots, which bundle 37 buses and trucks with nine refuelling stations. These consortia bring together truck makers, green-hydrogen producers and logistics firms to solve storage and safety issues before larger fleets commit capital. Lessons learned flow straight into the next funding round, de-risking a technology that could serve ultra-long-haul routes where batteries struggle.

Finance and standards bodies are joining the ecosystem too. SIDBI and Convergence Energy Services Ltd are building a telematics-driven credit marketplace where lenders price loans based on a vehicle’s real-world utilisation rather than its book value, thereby lowering interest rates for high-uptime operators. Meanwhile, BIS and ASDC working groups update repair codes the moment a new Indian Standard or Automotive Industry Standard is released, ensuring that depot manuals and training materials stay current.

By weaving together infrastructure, procurement, technology pilots and finance, these partnerships remove duplication, reduce costs and create an interoperable, future-proof charging network that benefits every fleet.

This article was first published in EVreporter Aug 2025 magazine.

Also read: India’s electric vehicle supply chain landscape | An overview