Blue Energy Motors is placing an aggressive wager on India’s transition to electric trucking, laying out plans to capture $3 billion in revenue over the next five years. This ambitious financial target hinges on achieving a corresponding sales goal of 30,000 EV trucks during the same period.
To realize this vision, the company is preparing for a massive infrastructure rollout and component localization push. Blue Energy Motors is currently finalizing plans with the Maharashtra government for a substantial Rs 3,500 crore investment designed to develop a comprehensive electric vehicle ecosystem. The company has so far raised about $50 million in funding to expand its business in India.
“We have set ourselves a target of 30,000 EVs over five years. That’s the vision we’ve set up,” confirmed Anirudh Bhuwalka, Founder and Managing Director of Blue Energy Motors. He stated that hitting this volume threshold means, “in five years, if you do 30,000 trucks, that’s going to be $3 billion in revenue.”
The necessity for such a large capital infusion stems from the company’s projection that its existing capacity of 10,000 units (which currently accommodates both LNG and EV production) will soon be inadequate. The planned investment of Rs 3,500 crore will primarily fund a new facility, which is anticipated to take between 24 to 36 months to construct. The entire three-year investment plan is currently focused on the Chakan area, leveraging the established ecosystem there.
The development comes even as the company had signed an MoU regarding it at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.
This capital is not merely allocated to bricks and mortar; it is focused on establishing control over the core technological components necessary for reliable EV operation. The company is strategically building an end-to-end ecosystem where it will manufacture trucks, components, and crucial battery infrastructure, the top executive explained.
Blue Energy Motors launched its electric heavy-duty truck equipped with battery-swapping technology Thursday. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis unveiled the truck at the company’s 10,000-unit Chakan facility in Pune.
Key elements of the Rs 3,500 crore investment include:
A significant part of the investment is earmarked for a 1.7-gigawatt pack line. The goal is to localize the production of battery packs, which are currently sourced from China, retaining the pack technology and intellectual property (IP) internally.
Secondly, the company is investing heavily in building out a proprietary network of 1,200 swap stations across key corridors. Each station is estimated to cost $0.5 million. These owned swap stations are crucial for the company’s business model, which revolves around providing “energy as a service.” This model incorporates electricity, battery costs, and swap station operating expenses into a profitable cost-per-kilometer charge for customers. Initial pilots on the Mumbai-Pune corridor indicate that the EV operating cost of Rs 25 per kilometer is nearly half that of a comparable diesel truck, which costs approximately Rs 50 per kilometer.
Bhuwalka expressed confidence in the pace of change, noting that the new plant needs to be started immediately because the transition is expected to happen “quite quickly.”
Dual Strategy: LNG Paves the Way for Long-Haul
While the immediate financial headline is tied to the EV business, Blue Energy Motors’ strategic foundation rests on a dual-product approach: short-haul electric, long-haul liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The company began its journey into alternative fuels by recognizing that traditional electric trucks could only solve the short-haul segment, leaving the vast market of 2 million long-haul trucks underserved. Blue Energy Motors launched the first LNG truck in India a few years ago. “I’m very clear that for the long haul, you have to use LNG; you can’t do electric today,” Bhuwalka asserted. He believes that LNG will remain the dominant method for long-haul routes for at least the next three to five years until charging corridors develop sufficiently.
The strategic plan was executed in phases: Phase one focused on LNG, followed by the launch of electric trucks in Phase two, which was timed fortuitously with a correction in battery prices.
The company believes this combined approach, which ensures that customers have viable solutions for all segments of the freight market, will be key to meeting its aggressive $3 billion revenue target.