Adoption of e-trucks with battery swapping may take longer: Montra Electric’s Jalaj Gupta

The adoption of battery swap electric trucks may take longer as challenges such as higher time and cost involved in setting up of battery swapping infrastructure persist, according to Jalaj Gupta, the managing director of Montra Electric (TI Clean Mobility).

“Customers are coming to terms with the electric truck itself. And on top of that, if you tell them about battery swap it becomes slightly difficult,” Gupta tells BT in an interview.

He, however, added that there are certain applications like ports where batter swapping works better. “When a ship comes to the dock, there is no time for trucks to get charged inside the terminal. In a port, utilization of the truck may not justify a swap,” says Gupta.

Electric commercial vehicle maker Montra Electric, part of the Murugappa Group, became the first heavy-duty electric truck manufacturer in the country to receive certification under the government’s PM E-DRIVE Scheme. It delivered the country’s first PM E-DRIVE–certified electric heavy truck, Rhino 5538 EV 6x4 Tractor trailer, to UltraTech Cement. The Rs 10,900 crore PM E-DRIVE scheme has an out lay of Rs 500 crore dedicated for e-trucks, translating into a direct customer benefit of up to ₹9.6 lakh per vehicle for the Rhino 5538 EV, which comes with both battery swapping and fixed battery options.

Montra Electric sold 170 electric trucks in 2025 – all of these had a fixed battery.

While the company hasn’t sold any battery swappable truck yet, it is in advanced talks to secure some orders. “We are toying with the idea of unlocking long-haul transport with a battery swap. We will set up swapping stations depending on the orders,” says Gupta.

“There are some distinct end-use cases that are emerging. Battery swap or fixed battery depends on the application. If a truck needs to run 20 hours a day and there is no time to charge, battery swap makes perfect sense. If a truck has to run 10-12 hours, then fixed battery makes sense,” Gupta says, adding that the company’s heavy truck portfolio primarily will have a fixed battery.

About 50% of Montra Electric’s revenue comes from the heavy truck business, which 20% each comes from three-wheeler and small commercial vehicle businesses. Electric tractors contribute about 10% to the company’s revenue.

“We have taken a big leap of faith by entering four segments simultaneously. We have done two things differently. We have plunged into all the four segments parallelly. We have taken a call to go only electric and not also electric. This is the only lifeline we have got. There is no other lifeline,” said Gupta.

On being asked how the new-age EV startup plans to take on legacy players, Gupta says, “Where we think we will have an edge is that selling an electric commercial vehicle is not about selling a truck, it is how efficient you can make the logistics operations of the customer and thereby improve efficiency and bring down cost.”

Gupta, however, believes that not all automobile segments will go electric. “We will be targeting the segments which have a logical fit with electric commercial vehicles,” he says.

Montra Electric is in talks with airport cargo operators to sell electric tractors. “We have sold about 150-plus e-tractors. E-tractors have not been adopted in agricultural farming. Reliance has deployed a good number of our e-tractors in their compressed biogas plants. In Q1 FY27, we will start deploying e-tractors in airports,” said Gupta.

The Murugappa Group has kept an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore for its EV venture. A reasonable part of it has been spent on new product development and setting up plants. “If more money is needed. We will seek more money,” says Gupta.

On supply chain challenges of critical rare earths, Gupta says supply chain for EVs is a work in progress. “It’s a journey that’s going to take some time,” he says.

“We used to import the battery packs earlier. Now, we only import cells and assemble the battery pack in Manesar. In a year from now, all our trucks and tractors will have our in-house developed micro controllers,” says Gupta.

On his budget wish list, Gupta said there should be a toll fee waiver for electric trucks on highways.