Win story in focus: Transforming Surat’s Electric Mobility Landscape
About
Surat, home to over 69,000 electric vehicles, is a leader in India’s e-mobility adoption. To advance low-carbon mobility, Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) launched India’s first city-level EV policy, expanded charging infrastructure, and electrified public and municipal fleets, building a strong EV ecosystem. To accelerate adoption further, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH worked with Deloitte to help SMC design and implement innovative, city-specific interventions to scale Surat’s e-mobility transition.
Problem
While Surat has made early strides in E-mobility, several untapped opportunities remain. Under the climate-friendly E-mobility project, Deloitte supported SMC to strengthen the ecosystem and scale adoption. Key gaps identified include:
- Absence of a unified E-mobility vision, implementation plan, and institutional coordination
- Low EV uptake in high-impact segments and limited use of operational data for planning
- Lack of integrated digital platforms and skilled workforce
- Limited integration of alternative fuel technology, green energy, and smart ticketing innovations
Solution
Deloitte led the consultancy ‘City Specific Electric Mobility Solution Implementation’ that aimed to overcome these policy gaps, operational and technical challenges by developing unique and context specific e-mobility solutions. The project team adopted a multi-faceted approach, tailored to address specific needs and challenges in electric mobility value chain. Key initiatives of the project are as follows:
Surat Green Vehicle (GV) Policy 2025: Deloitte advised Surat to adopt a broad, technology-agnostic approach for a resilient transport transition and played a pivotal role in shaping the pioneering ‘Green Vehicle Policy’ for a cleaner, smarter urban future.
- Institutionalising the Green Vehicle (GV) Cell in Surat: Deloitte
created a detailed framework for a three-tiered GV cell under SMC with complete autonomy on green mobility related matters aimed for swift, multi-stakeholder decision-making and implementation. - Bus Analytics dashboard: A dynamic dashboard was developed to monitor key performance indicators for bus operations and finance in real-time. It provides insights on ridership, financials, service quality, and user feedback.
- Renewable Energy (RE) powered Bus Rapid Transit (BRT ) corridor: To maximise the decarbonisation potential of e-buses, the team developed a pre-feasibility study for RE-powered bus corridors in Surat. The plan involved installing elevated solar PV panels along BRT corridors to generate solar power for charging e-buses at depots.
- Surat One EV app: The team developed a framework for the Surat One EV app, designed to consolidate services for EV users, city authorities, power distributors, and charge point operators on a single platform. By unifying EV services, the app aims to enhance charging infrastructure utilisation and improve the experience for EV owners.
- Enhancing EV charging infrastructure and battery swapping: The team assessed current utilisation of the charging infrastructure at Surat. With vast experience in crafting business models for charging infrastructure, the team organised a workshop with private charge point operators to explore the avenues for partnerships.
- Framework for digital and integrated ticketing system: To help SMC overcome implementation barriers and optimise revenue, a workshop on integrated digital ticketing and contactless payment systems was held. It focused on adapting global ticketing practices and addressing challenges in unifying Surat’s fare payment systems.
Impact
Through the implementation of these forward-looking interventions, Deloitte has enabled Surat to fast-track its transition to electric mobility. Some of the salient impact generated via the project are as follows:
- The Surat GV Policy 2025 is set to be the country’s first technology-agnostic mobility policy, projected to achieve 57x CO₂ emissions and 50x fuel savings compared to the previous policy. It also expands its scope to include emerging vehicle segments like freight.
- Surat GV Cell is expected to streamline coordination across 10+ institutions and other stakeholders of Surat’s mobility ecosystem, improving inter-institutional coordination.
- The suite of tools such as Bus Key Performance Indicators Monitoring Tool and Surat One EV App will transform operational efficiency and user experience.
- RE powered BRT corridor, with elevated solar Photovoltaic (PV) installations, would increase the share of clean energy in bus operations, contributing to Surat’s decarbonisation goals.
- Deloitte’s strategic recommendations on EV charging and battery swapping infrastructure are guiding SMC in optimising infrastructure placement while scaling the network across the city.
- Deloitte’s cutting-edge capacity building programs have laid the foundation for Surat to modernise its fare collection system, signaling a mind-shift in its approach.
Anne Greenwald
