Tube Investments of India (TII), part of the Murugappa group, will start rolling out its much-awaited electric three-wheeler Montra and an electric truck in March this year. The company’s e-tractor will be launched by July through its newly-formed mobility arm — TI Clean Mobility.
Vellayan Subbiah, executive vice-chairman, TII, told analysts that it will start manufacturing of e-three wheelers and put out the first set of products in March with its current plan and then start selling, increasing volumes from April onwards. He said the e-truck of 55-tonne will follow a similar timeline.
At the launch of e-three wheeler in September last year, the company had said the vehicle’s delivery will begin as early as in October at TII’s Ambattur facility near Chennai. But it was delayed, and the management of the company now said delivery of the vehicle will commence from March this year and the sales from the following month. The delay was on account of the new battery safety standards introduced by the government.
“The e-tractor is something that will still need a full homologation. So we’re estimating that we’ll get homologated in the March-April time frame, which means that sales will only happen in the July time frame,” he said.
The company had incurred a total expenditure of `500 crore to date in the three businesses, through internal accruals. TII had previously said that electric heavy commercial vehicle launch would happen in December and electric tractors either in the last quarter of FY23 or Q1 of FY24.
KK Paul, MD, TI Clean Mobility (TICMPL), said that the launch was delayed due to new battery safety standards announced by the Centre. Besides, TICMPL also used the opportunity to do a lot more reliability tests and to ramp up suppliers volume and align it with quality and delivery standards. In the first phase, it will be launching the product in the southern states commencing from March and steadily ramp it up. It will be done state by state. Currently, the company has 42 distributors along with the service centre and by the year-end, it plans to have about 75.
Regarding indigenisation of electric three wheelers, Paul said that they are sufficiently indigenised, except for cells which have to be imported, while motor and controller would be procured locally.
TII had reported a 15% increase in its net profit at ` 138 crore for the third quarter of FY’23 as compared to `120 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Total revenue was flat at `1,710 crore as compared to `1,701 crore. The company has planned to expand its capacity at the large diameter precision steel tubes manufacturing facility at Tiruttani near Chennai at a cost of ` 141 crore.
