Hyderabad/China – Olectra-BYD has announced it plans to open a second plant in North India by 2021 to meet growing demand. The exact location is to be disclosed once an agreement has been finalized and signed with the state government. Originally, a second plant had been planned in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, but the company said it had been unable to strike an agreement with local government.

Olectra-BYD is the name of a collaboration initiative between BYD Company Ltd of Shenzhen, China and Olectra Greentech Ltd of Hyderabad, whereby the Olectra-owned Hyderabad plant is used to build electric buses in India, while BYD provides the technology to facilitate this. The current arrangement is that BYD supplies completely-knocked-down (CKD) kits for assembly by Olectra. It is understood the companies are now in the process of forming a joint venture to localise some of the content. This second initiative is being pursued to placate opposition from the competition, which have questioned the validation for receiving subsidies for importing kits, when the subsidy is being allocated based on the ‘Make In India’ scheme.