NEW DELHI, Sept. 6 -- One Sunday late in 2024, Saurabh Patwardhan was at home in Pune with electric buses on his mind. He was planning to pitch the electric vehicles to his father (and boss) Prasanna Patwardhan, chairman of the 40-year-old Prasanna Group, a family-run bus operating company.

A little nervous, Patwardhan asked his father whether the business, which started in 1988, could run electric buses again. "We had tried our hand at e-buses in 2019, on the Mumbai-Pune route. But our attempt went under in no time," he recalls.

Fortunately, Patwardhan Sr. gave his assent. Today, the son, who is a director of Prasanna Purple Mobility Solutions Pvt. Ltd, runs 62 intercity e-buses, and is planning to increase that count to 100 in the com...