Mr Palmer joins the company as it announces the electrification of buses from Indian manufacturer Ashok Leyland and its British arm, Optare.
Backing Switch Mobility is Hinduja Group, an Indian-UK based conglomerate in oil, banking and finance, automotive, IT and real estate that last year turned over $A140 billion.
Switch Mobility chairman Dheeraj Hinduja said the Hinduja Group was “focused on providing the needed thrust to our ongoing initiatives in the rapidly growing zero-carbon mobility sector”.
“This is orchestrated through combining the advanced engineering and development skills in the UK and India to address the demand in global markets.
“I am confident that with Andy Palmer at the helm, we will accelerate our vision to be at the forefront in this field soon.”
Andy Palmer said: “I’m delighted to have become part of the executive leadership team and believe we have all the required ingredients to become a leading global e-bus and e-truck player, trail-blazing the way to zero-carbon public transport.”
A new leadership team has been appointed to administer the manufacturing and innovation capabilities of Ashok Leyland and Optare, to provide customers with transport solutions offering industry-leading low cost of ownership and net-zero emissions.
Mr Palmer will be supported by an experienced team to deliver the company’s ambitions to be a leader in urban e-mobility.
This includes the appointment of Nitin Seth as chief operating officer, Sarwant Singh Saini as chief planning officer and Roger Blakey as chief technical officer.
Switch Mobility has teams in the UK and India and more than 280 electric vehicles in service with more than 42 million kilometres covered. It has recently secured orders for a fleet of 2000 commercial EVs.
It also has technological collaboration with partners including Siemens to deliver e-mobility solutions providing the lowest total cost of ownership for commercial vehicle customers in India.
By Neil Dowling
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