The $80M move that could electrify fleets

Drivn just got a big funding boost. It has secured commitments of up to $80 million from Nomura to grow its electric bus and truck business in India.

In simple terms, Drivn buys electric buses and trucks and then rents them out to transport operators. It also helps with the practical stuff that usually slows EVs down, like setting up charging, tracking battery health, running fleets smoothly, and handling batteries when they are done.

The deets: the company aims to support the Phase 1 rollout of nearly 1,000 electric buses and trucks for inter-city travel and heavy transport, the parts of the market that burn the most fuel today.

This also fits India’s bigger EV goal of 30% of all vehicle sales being electric by 2030. India’s EV journey started slow, but it is picking up. EV sales grew from about 50,000 in 2016 to 2.08 million in 2024. Globally, sales rose from 918,000 to 18.78 million in the same period.

Bottom line: India is still behind the world, but it is catching up. Our EV adoption went from about one-fifth of the global level in 2020 to over two-fifth in 2024.