Veera Vahana & Exponent Energy claim to have world’s fastest charging electric bus

Indian bus body builder Veera Vahana and energy startup Exponent Energy have co-developed a new electric bus called Veera Mahasamrat EV. The companies claim it is the fastest-charging electric bus in the world.

The Veera Mahasamrat EV features a 320 kWh LFP battery pack that operates at 650 volts. Customers can rapid-charge the battery pack in just 15 minutes using Exponent Energy’s 1 megawatt (MW) charger. The bus also comes with a 6,00,000 km/3,000 km life cycle warranty for the battery pack.

On LinkedIn, Exponent Energy wrote that the Veera Mahasamrat EV will cover a distance of 650 km with two short stops, both presumably for rapid charging at the highway 1 MW charging stations. The new electric bus has a 190 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor at the back of the rear axle. It can accelerate from 0 to 30 kph in ten seconds or less, achieve a top speed of 98 kph, and climb a 17-degree grade.

Veera Vahana and Exponent Energy plan to deploy the Veera Mahasamrat EV on the popular Bengaluru (Karnataka)-Hyderabad (Telangana) route in the southern part of India. Exponent Energy is one of the first companies worldwide to develop a 1-MW charging solution with a proprietary and patented technology, co-founder and CEO Arun Vinayak told electrive in an emailed statement. He added that Tesla has also developed its own standards on top of the nearly standardised megawatt charging system (MCS) being tested in Europe.

The energy startup based in Bengaluru will install four 1 MW charging stations for this operation, one at each destination and two along the highway. Vinayak said the company is working on the project but did not provide a specific timeline for completion.

Veera Vahan’s Managing Director K. Srinivas Reddy emphasised that deploying rapid charging stations is vital to make electric buses feasible for long routes. “It’s difficult to package a single battery to deliver 600km of range and with long charging time – customers are not willing to wait for an hour along the highway,” he told the media.

According to Veera Vahana and Exponent Energy, the Veera Mahasamrat EV is the world’s first two-axle, 13.5-metre-long EV coach. The sleeper bus measures 2.6 m in width, 4 m in height, and its wheelbase spans 6.85 m. It has a gross vehicle weight of 19.5 tonnes and offers a passenger capacity of 36 people. Veera Vahana has equipped the bus with air suspension at both front and rear to give the occupants a comfortable ride.

The two companies did not disclose the price of the Veera Mahasamrat EV in the press release. However, according to The Aruj Gurav, an Indian YouTube channel, the new electric bus costs approximately 22 million rupees (about €236,000).

ciolookindia.com (press release), youtu.be (specs), linkedin.com, youtu.be (price)