India: TVS Vehicle Mobility Solutions to deploy 57 electric heavy-duty trucks TVS VMS has partnered with Indian electric commercial vehicle manufacturer Montra Electric for the first phase of its electrification plans. It plans to use Montra Electric’s Rhino 5538 EV 4×2 TT and has taken delivery of the first vehicles at Montra Electric’s manufacturing facility in Manesar, Haryana. The route in Chhattisgarh on which TVS VMS plans to operate the 57 Rhino 5538 EV 4×2 TT trucks spans 190 kilometres. Montra Electric designed the model for heavy-duty freight operations, and the route includes three dedicated charging stations for added operational flexibility. The Rhino 5538 EV 4×2 TT has a gross combination weight (GCW) of 55 tonnes and features a 280 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor, a six-speed automated manual transmission and a 282 kWh LFP battery. It supports dual-gun charging at up to 240 kW and takes about 60 minutes to charge from 20 per cent to 100 per cent SoC. Montra Electric specifies a gradeability of 18 per cent and a range of up to 198 kilometres under standard test conditions. Montra Electric offers the Rhino 5538 EV in fixed-battery and battery-swapping versions, with the latter allowing a battery exchange in less than six minutes. The announcement does not specify whether the 57 trucks will use the fixed-battery or battery-swapping version. According to Montra Electric, the partners plan to deploy more than 300 electric trucks by March 2027. Navneet Sethi, CEO of Montra Electric’s eM&HCV Division, said: “This is a company with over seven decades of running conventional trucking now choosing to enter electric trucking for the first time, and choosing us to do it is validation that our platform can handle the demands of commercial-scale freight. For Montra Electric, this is a marker of how electric heavy trucking