By Nirmal Reddy, CEO – ETO OHM.
“2025 marked a clear inflexion point for the automotive industry, with electric vehicles moving decisively from early adoption to scaled, mainstream deployment across both passenger and commercial segments. Stronger policy clarity around incentives, localisation and safety norms, coupled with accelerated domestic manufacturing of EVs, components and batteries, helped stabilise costs and improve supply-chain resilience. Battery prices continued to rationalise, while improvements in energy density and thermal management expanded viable use cases across urban, intercity and fleet applications.
At a macro level, the industry saw a structural shift from hardware-led vehicles to software-defined mobility, with AI-driven telematics, battery intelligence and over-the-air capabilities becoming central to vehicle design, operations and lifecycle management. Integrated charging ecosystems—combining fast charging, smart depot charging and energy management—emerged as a critical enabler of scale, especially for high-utilisation fleets. At the same time, reforms around localisation, safety standards and data-driven compliance increased long-term confidence among OEMs, suppliers and fleet operators, positioning EVs as a core pillar of the automotive sector rather than a parallel alternative.
Within this evolving ecosystem, 2025 was a defining year for AION-Tech Solutions’ subsidiary, ETO Motors, as fleet-led electrification scaled rapidly across passenger mobility, logistics, airport, metro-feeder and intercity segments. Expansion across high-impact corridors included the launch of electric four-wheeler services at Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru, and a partnership with FlixBus Germany to operate electric intercity routes between Hyderabad and Vijayawada.
Continued investments in smart charging infrastructure, intelligent energy management, AI-enabled fleet perations and advanced telematics helped improve utilisation, uptime and operational resilience at scale.
Looking ahead to 2026, the focus will shift from adoption to optimisation—higher asset utilisation, deeper integration with public transport, smarter energy management, and sustainable commercial models. The next phase of EV growth will be defined not just by vehicles sold, but by how intelligently electric mobility systems are planned, operated and scaled across cities and regions.”