Switch Mobility
Zero-carbon Mobility for All
Global powerhouse Hinduja Group owned two mobility brands – Ashok Leyland, India’s leading commercial vehicle brand and Optare, the maker of London’s iconic double-decker buses. In line with their global ambition and strategy, Ashok Leyland would focus on their core business of diesel-powered vehicles alternate fuels, while Optare would focus on and build the group’s EV operations. Optare, given its historic association with diesel-powered buses, needed to be rebranded for this new reality.
Delving deep into the authenticity and strengths of both, Ashok Leyland and Optare, we realized that a combination of the two presented the best of both worlds: cutting-edge research and product development capabilities in Europe, and the reach and trust in a large part of the developing world – the ‘global south’, so to speak. The fact that the new brand would leverage both these made for a compelling argument. In creating the brand narrative, we leveraged an important insight: that a real difference in the fight against climate change would be impractical without the active participation of the global south. This became the basis for the brand proposition: democratizing zero-carbon mobility for the good of the planet.
The name, Switch, played at two levels – while overtly signaling electric mobility, it also subliminally encouraged the world to ‘switch’ to cleaner means of transport.
The core proposition of the brand – democratization – was visually represented as the mathematical symbol for “equal”. This became a core part of the identity and the design language.
The new brand was announced in November 2021 alongside Ohm – a global e-Mobility as a Service (eMaas) brand that Interbrand created in tandem with Switch – to offer a complete carbon-neutral mobility solution to the world. Since its launch, Switch has since made rapid strides, introducing a flurry of new products and services and changing the face of public transport in India and the world.
At Switch Mobility, we embrace the ethos of a start-up and enjoy the legacies of intellectual property, borne from more than a decade of technical expertise and engineering experience, that is already revenue-generating and delivering for our customers.
Andy Palmer, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, Switch Mobility
