Reaffirming its commitment towards sustainable mobility, Tata Motors, India’s largest commercial vehicle player and leading bus manufacturer, announced that it has won a tender of 15 hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell buses from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOCL). IOCL had invited bids for supply of PEM fuel cell buses in December 2020, and Tata Motors was selected as the winner following a diligent evaluation process. All 15 buses will be delivered within 144 weeks from the date of signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

In addition to supplying the buses to the Research & Development Centre of IOCL, Tata Motors will also collaborate with them to undertake R&D projects and collectively study further the potential of Fuel Cell technology for commercial vehicles. This will be done by jointly testing, maintaining and operating these buses for public transport in real-world conditions in Delhi-NCR. The buses will be refuelled by hydrogen, generated and dispensed by IOCL.

SM Vaidya, Chairman, IndianOil, stated that IndianOil has been pioneering the national efforts towards ushering in the hydrogen economy for various applications, including mobility. This first-of-its-kind project in the country is bringing the country’s largest fuel supplier and largest commercial vehicle manufacturer on board to take the hydrogen and fuel cell technology to the next level. This initiative would also act as a stepping stone for various other key programmes of Indian Oil, which proposes to introduce hydrogen-based mobility on different iconic routes and important sectors in the country. These futuristic steps are in the right direction for making hydrogen as the ultimate net-zero fuel.

Speaking on the occasion, Girish Wagh, President, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “We are delighted to win this prestigious tender from IOCL for it adds to Tata Motors’ rich legacy of introducing future ready technologies for cleaner and greener public transport. We have successfully supplied 215 EV buses under FAME I and won orders for 600 EV buses under FAME II. This order to supply PEM Fuel Cell buses from a company as respected as Indian Oil Corporation, further encourages our ongoing efforts on developing India-focused alternative sustainable fuels to transform the future of mobility in India.”

Dr. SSV Ramakumar, Director (R&D), Indian Oil while congratulating Tata Motors, mentioned that lot of hard work has been put in by the IndianOil R&D team towards conceiving, planning and executing this joint developmental cum demonstration program with a strong support from Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. IndianOil through cutting edge R&D, is committed to strengthen the production and supply chain of hydrogen energy in India and would be setting up approx 1 tonne per day hydrogen production pilot plants based on four innovative pathways besides collaborating with Tata Motors for fuel cell research.

Tata Motors Limited, a $35 billion organisation, is a leading global automobile manufacturer of cars, utility vehicles, pick-ups, trucks and buses. Part of the $113 billion Tata group, Tata Motors is India’s largest and the only OEM offering extensive range of integrated, smart and e-mobility solutions. It has operations in India, the UK, South Korea, Thailand, South Africa, and Indonesia through a strong global network of 103 subsidiaries, 10 associate companies, 3 joint ventures and 2 joint operations as on March 31, 2020.

With a focus on engineering and tech enabled automotive solutions catering to the future of mobility, Tata Motors is India’s market leader in commercial vehicles and amongst the top four in the passenger vehicles market. With ‘Connecting Aspirations’ at the core of its brand promise, the company’s innovation efforts are focused to develop pioneering technologies that are sustainable as well as suited to evolving aspirations of the market and the customers. Tata Motors strives to bring new products that fire the imagination of GenNext customers, fueled by state of the art design and R&D centers located in India, UK, US, Italy and South Korea. Internationally, Tata commercial and passenger vehicles are marketed in countries, spread across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, South East Asia, South America, Australia, CIS, and Russia.