Charging planner that moves e-bus depot power into cheaper daytime hours
TL;DR Depotcharge is software for private operators running electric buses on city contracts. It predicts how much energy each bus needs tomorrow, decides when and how fast to charge it, and pushes more charging into the daytime window when power is cheaper. Operators pay a monthly fee per bus.
Since September 2024, central guidelines have told DISCOMs to charge EV stations 0.7 times the average cost of supply between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., and 1.3 times at all other hours[1]. So overnight power, which is when most depots charge, costs nearly double the daytime rate.
For bus operators that's real money. City contracts set an energy target by bus type, from 0.85 kWh/km for a 9 m non-AC bus to 1.3 kWh/km for a 12 m AC bus, and buses must be able to run 225 km a day[2]. That works out to roughly 190–290 kWh per bus per day. Operators pay for power up to a benchmark, and if they miss the efficiency target the excess sits with them[2].
What it does: planning and control software only. Depotcharge does not sell electricity or run chargers. It talks to the depot's existing chargers through their management system, which the 2024 guidelines recognise as a tool fleets use to optimise charging[1].
Every evening Depotcharge reads tomorrow's timetable, the season and each bus's recent kWh/km, and forecasts what each bus will need. Then it builds a charging plan - top-ups during midday layovers when the timetable allows, slower overnight charging only for what's left, and a cap on the depot's peak draw. In the morning, depot staff see which buses are ready and which are short. Over time it learns each route's real consumption and flags buses drifting past their contract target before the monthly bill does.
The original idea was AI cost optimisation for any EV fleet, and I've narrowed it. Charging yards for three-wheeler fleets are a different business, and generic charger software already exists. E-bus operators have the biggest bills, written efficiency targets and a clear tariff gap to work with.
The operator holding the city contract pays, per bus per month. The user is the depot manager. The transport authority wins too, because it pays for power above the contract benchmark[2], so a city could fund the tool across several operators. There's no Indian price for this kind of software yet, so test a fee that's a small share of the monthly energy saving.
The solar-hour tariff structure was set in September 2024 and holds till March 2028[1]. PM E-DRIVE is funding 14,028 e-buses through city undertakings on gross cost contracts[3], and CESL lists a tender for 6,230 more, including 3,330 for Delhi[4]. Every new depot needs a charging plan from day one.
There's no public figure for depot energy software in India. Bottom-up, the 14,028 PM E-DRIVE buses[3] at 190–290 kWh a day[2] would use roughly 27–41 lakh kWh daily. One Indian e-bus maker alone reports more than 4,000 electric vehicles on the road[5]. So the market is big in energy terms, but the number of operators who'd actually buy is small.
Abroad, one European charging-software firm plans bus charging around schedules and dynamic tariffs, with depots in the Netherlands and Venice[6]. A US energy-management platform runs charging for more than 200 sites, including a school-bus fleet[7]. In India, operators mostly lean on their charger vendor's software. I found no independent planner built around GCC targets and solar-hour tariffs.
| Difficulty | Moderate (42/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹70 L–1.4 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The forecasting is doable. What's hard is getting clean data out of a mix of chargers and buses, and then convincing a few large operators to let outside software touch their depot. A plan that saves money but leaves one bus short on a morning run will get switched off, so the software has to earn trust slowly, starting in suggestion mode.
No operating licence needed. Depotcharge plans charging, and it doesn't supply electricity or run a charging station.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
AI is the core of this product, so the question is where it earns its keep.
Don't let the model override a dispatcher on whether a bus goes out. A missed morning trip costs more than any tariff saving.
Want to work out the AI layer for Depotcharge? Talk to Yash →
I like this for a founder who knows bus operations or power tariffs and is happy selling to a few large companies. If you want thousands of small customers then it's a poor fit. First prove, in one depot over a month, that the plan cuts the energy bill by 8% or more without a single missed trip.
Plan for roughly ₹70 L–1.4 Cr, mostly on engineers, charger integrations and a long pilot with one operator.
It can be, but the buyer pool is small. A few operators run most contracted e-buses, so each deal carries a lot of weight, and the saving depends on your state adopting solar-hour tariffs.
Yes, wherever electric bus fleets pay time-of-day tariffs. Check how your local regulator prices EV charging before you build the savings case.
The free Depotcharge validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the tariff and data checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for depot managers and operators, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Depotcharge or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting one large operator to run a live depot on your plan, and that first yes is where I usually help. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.