Montra Electric, the clean-mobility arm of the Murugappa Group, has launched the Rhino 5538 EV 4×2 TT, a 55-ton electric prime mover, at its Manesar facility in Gurugram, marking a watershed moment for India’s commercial-vehicle electrification drive. Alongside the new model, the company inaugurated India’s first all-women-monitored automated battery-swap plant and integrated Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) into its eM&HCV assembly line.
Powered by a 282 kWh LFP battery, the Rhino 5538 EV delivers 380 HP and 2,000 Nm of torque through a six-speed AMT transmission, offering a range of nearly 198 km under standard test conditions. Operators may choose between a fixed-battery pack or a rapid battery-swap option, the latter completed in under six minutes—dramatically reducing downtime compared with conventional fast-charging of over an hour. Priced at ₹1.15 crore (ex-factory), the truck is backed by a ten-year/900,000 km AMC contract, a 95 per cent uptime guarantee, advanced telematics and tailored financing solutions.
The heavy-commercial-vehicle sector moves over 70 per cent of India’s 4.6 billion tonnes of annual freight. Electrifying long-haul segments could cut particulate and nitrous-oxide pollution by 40 per cent by 2050 and avoid 838 billion litres of diesel consumption, saving trillions in oil imports. With government schemes such as PM E-DRIVE stimulating EV adoption and production-linked incentives boosting local battery manufacturing, the entry of high-capacity e-trucks is crucial to decarbonising logistics.
