Ease My Trip, India’s second-largest travel portal, is stepping into the bus manufacturing sector with an ambitious plan to roll out 2,000 electric buses within the next two years. The company aims to expand this fleet to 5,000 buses over the same period.
The announcement came on September 5, with Ease My Trip revealing its intention to build an electric bus prototype, which is expected to be operational by the next financial year. Manoj Soni, CEO of EV and Mobility at Ease My Trip, shared details of the plan in an interview with CNBC-TV18 on September 6.
The move into bus manufacturing aligns with Ease My Trip’s existing online bus ticketing portal, Yolobus. Soni noted that the electric buses will be deployed both for internal use and for external clients starting from FY27. He also mentioned that the company has allocated an initial investment of Rs 200 crore for research and development, with additional funding arrangements to be announced later.
Ease My Trip has secured board approval to raise Rs 1,000 crore and is considering a capital raise in the coming months. The company is also seeking government support through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electric vehicles.
While the bus and train ticketing segment currently contributes less than 2% to Ease My Trip’s revenue, it has shown significant growth, with a 36.9% year-on-year increase in transactions during Q1FY25. The company is also focusing on expanding its non-airline business, which has seen substantial growth in recent quarters.
Ease My Trip’s strategy includes growing its non-airline business from 88% to 25% of total revenue over the next few years, with the hotels and holiday packages segment experiencing a remarkable 116% year-on-year growth in gross booking revenue during the June quarter.
