By: Kunal Doley
When union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in this year’s Budget speech that the government will roll out a new policy on ‘battery swapping’ with interoperability standards, it came as a big thrust to the electric vehicle (EV) segment. Simply put, the move to allow replacement of out-of-charge batteries with charged ones, usually from a charging station or outlet, is expected to help in management of space for expansion of EV charging infrastructure.
And while this is welcome news, the major issues to make electric vehicles cheap, accessible and practical remain. At a time when there has been a lot of push for electric vehicles, their adoption remains a challenge over lack of adequate charging stations. As per a Grant Thornton Bharat-FICCI report released in June last year, India will need 4 lakh charging stations to meet the estimated requirement of 20 lakh EVs plying on the roads by 2026.
However, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), an industry body, there are only 1,800 charging stations as of March 2021. The figure disclosed by Union minister of power and new and renewable energy Raj Kumar Singh in Parliament in December last year is even lower at 1,028 public EV charging stations, of which about 30% are in the national capital alone.
The situation may look bleak, but some innovative start-ups are now trying to fill the gaps.
All amped up
Sayantan Chakraborti remembers the first time he heard about an electric car, which was in 2011 during a trip to the US. The car was named Roadster and was built by Tesla. “Fast forward four years, and I sat in an electric car for the first time. The experience was nothing like what I had driven so far. I had seen the future and I knew it was coming,” says the CEO of e-mobility charging solution provider goEgoNetwork, which was set up in Pune in 2019 with a mission to pioneer the EV charging ecosystem in India.
“The immediate thoughts that crossed my mind centred on how do I experience the freedom of driving this EV to my favourite holiday destination. Suddenly, the penny dropped. The seeds of goEgoNetwork were planted that day. I decided that to bring confidence to EV drivers, we need to give them a sense of freedom. Freedom to charge wherever they go, freedom to charge where they stay, work, study; freedom to charge wherever they park their EV, freedom to charge everywhere where electricity is available,” says Chakraborti, an alumnus of Rotterdam School of Management, Netherlands, who has a strong foothold in the banking and financial services space building and operating scalable IT platforms with the likes of Tibco, TD Bank, ABN Amro Bank and NN Investment Partners.
In September last year, goEgoNetwork installed its EV charging facility at Kaza in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, making it the highest such facility in the world. It was to “make a point that we can reach any heights in India”, as per the company.
Bharat AC and Dual Socket Type 2 chargers, which have been installed by the company in the western Himalayas, have make-in-India certification and compliance with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and Open Charge Alliance (OCA) certification. They will cater to EV scooters and cars, as per the company.
With a staff strength of 45 and a user base of 400 members, the company’s target audience includes households, apartments and residential complexes in residential charging and office establishments, restaurants/ cafes, and institutional parking lots for businesses. In terms of public charging infrastructure, goEgoNetwork has public charging lots, toll stations, and inter-state highways as its user base.
With new players entering the EV space in India, and manufacturers evolving to build a shorter time span from launch to delivery, Chakraborti feels that the need for charging infrastructure is only rising. “People are recognising the need for a greener commute. Charging stations and solutions will also solve the mind block that possible EV owners would face in terms of the infrastructure available for their vehicles,” he adds.
Agrees Sumit Dhanuka, founder and CEO of ElectriVa, a New Delhi-based end-to-end EV charging solutions provider that was launched early last year. In fact, Dhanuka feels that given the rise of e-vehicles, the number of charging stations needed by 2026 will be much more than what the Grant Thornton Bharat-FICCI report projected last year.
“Our vision is to have 1 lakh charging points in the next three years and also provide battery charging services. In the next three-four years, we will be the largest player with more than 25-30% market share,” adds Dhanuka.
ElectriVa has already bagged the contract for installing and operating 100 EV charging stations in Delhi. The contract awarded by the local urban bodies in the national capital includes strategic areas like South Ex, Lajpat Nagar, RK Puram and Vasant Vihar, among others. “In Delhi, we are already the largest independent EV charging provider. We just have to build on this now,” adds Dhanuka.
The USP of ElectriVa’s charging stations in Delhi will be that all of them will be on the roadside and right outside the commercial hubs. “Every three kilometres, we want to set up a charging point in Delhi. The same will simultaneously be replicated across all metros,” says Dhanuka.
Commenting on ElectriVa’s revenue model, Dhanuka says the company is focused on the core charging business. “We offer affordable roadside vehicle charging services. Without getting into the numbers, I can say it’s a lucrative revenue model where the ROI will remain very high. There are also some non-core legs to the revenue model. But we believe that on standalone charging revenue itself, it will be a highly scalable and profitable model,” he says.
Like EletriVa, Noida-based Uznaka Solutions was also born to support the e-mobility ecosystem in India. Incorporated in 2018 by Varun Goel, an electronics engineer by education, Uznaka manufactures AC Type-1 and Type-2 charging stations which cater to two- and three-wheelers and cars ranging from 3.3 KW to 40 KW capacity. All the products are completely manufactured and assembled in India.
The company is largely focused on production of EV charging stations. “We have authorised resellers providing sales and after-sales service support. We also sell products directly to customers, keeping the set-up as a ‘make & sell’ model,” says Goel, who pursued a corporate career as a business strategist across several MNCs before designing and developing charging station equipment at Uznaka. It took almost two years for the company to launch its first product in December 2019.
Along with its manufacturing facility, Uznaka has also developed a last-mile connectivity service ‘E-Manzil’ in association with Indian Railways at various railway stations. “We operate as transport solution providers to passengers using e-rickshaws. The mode of transport is reasonably priced and provides employment opportunity to e-rickshaw drivers along with providing a safe and sanitised transport mode to commuters,” explains Goel. Till date, Uznaka has five operating E-Manzil outlets in India, with more than 25,000 customers having used the service, adds Goel.
Simplifying energy
Arun Vinayak, an IIT-Madras graduate, spent seven years at Bengaluru-headquartered EV company Ather Energy as its founding partner and chief product officer, helping build India’s first vertically integrated electric two-wheeler (e-2W) ecosystem. During his time at Ather, he gained a unique perspective of the challenges EV players face in India. This led to a vision of his new start-up to simplify energy for all EVs.
Vinayak believes that India cannot scale its EV ambitions unless we simplify energy. He then embarked on a journey to build something beyond the e-2W space and co-founded Exponent Energy in October 2020.
Exponent Energy is unlocking scale for EVs by simplifying the otherwise complicated, expensive, and slow ‘EV energytrain’ —the flow of energy between the charger and battery. In line with this, the company recently unveiled its battery pack and charging station called E-pack & E-pump that together unlock a 15-minute rapid charge and give a 3,000-cycle life warranty (a new industry standard)—all done on a range of affordable Li-ion (lithium ion) cells. This is made possible by Exponent Energy’s proprietary battery management system (BMS) and charging algorithms, layered on top of its unique e-pack design.
“We need an enabler to foster energy partnerships crafted in a way that creates a win-win scenario for the consumer, the vehicle manufacturer, and the charging station partner. At Exponent, we are creating that deeper impact for everyone to scale exponentially,” says the 30-year-old co-founder and CEO.
Exponent Energy is a 30-plus member team. The company recently closed a pre-series A round of $5 million that saw existing investors double down on their earlier investment and the participation of Motherson Group, a global supplier of automotive components.
The company caters to vehicle manufacturers, fleet operators in the logistics space, and commercial real estate owners who wish to become charging station partners. Exponent will begin commercial operations in the coming months.
Winds of change
Recently, it was reported that Tata Power has entered into a partnership with Apollo Tyres to deploy EV charging stations at the latter’s commercial and passenger vehicle zones across India.
For this, Tata Power has deployed all types of chargers, including DC 001, AC, Type 2, fast DC chargers up to 50 kwh and up to 240 kwh chargers for buses. “This partnership reflects our commitment to developing and expanding the electric vehicle ecosystem in the country,” Praveer Sinha, CEO and MD of Tata Power, said after the announcement earlier this month.
Based on location, this classification of chargers will support EV charging for two-wheelers and four-wheelers, respectively.
As per the agreement between Apollo Tyres and Tata Power, the latter will set up charging stations at 150 branded retail outlets of Apollo Tyres initially. In addition to the customers visiting these tyre retail outlets, the charging stations would be open for use by the general public as well.
Meanwhile, in October last year, Ola Electric went live with its first ‘hypercharger’ station for its electric scooters. The Softbank-backed two-wheeler manufacturer said it will install more than 4,000 charging points for its customers across cities through this year.
“We’re installing across India and will make them operational in 6-8 weeks. They will be free for use till June for all customers,” founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal had said in a tweet in December last year.
Earlier, Ola Electric had said its hypercharger network will be “the widest and densest electric two-wheeler charging network in the world”, as the company plans to have over one lakh charging points across 400 cities in the near future.
Strong currents
Since EV is an emerging industry, there are bound to be other challenges that are hindering growth. “The first and foremost is infrastructure. Since the number of charging stations is less and the time required for EV charging is more in comparison to fossil fuel vehicles, customers hesitate while making the purchase decision. The price disparity between a petrol or diesel car and an EV is huge, which also influences customer buying behaviour. With the long-term challenges in mind, the government must have measures to cater to increased electricity demand related to EV adoption,” says Goel of Uznaka Solutions.
In India, the government has done a splendid job of supporting the EV ecosystem till date, says Vinayak of Exponent Energy. However, he feels there are a few areas they can address to further spur growth. “Currently, there exists an inverted tax structure where EVs are taxed at 5% and battery packs alone at 18%. Several constraints are also placed on new OEMs, as well as the development of new models like battery as a service,” he adds.
We are a very nascent market in India, which in itself has its own challenges and hurdles, says Chakraborti of goEgoNetwork. “Although the government is announcing multiple policies, there could be stricter monitoring on the implementation of the same. At the same time, we are hopeful that the government will consider subsidies for electric two-wheelers and four-wheelers under the FAME-II (second phase of faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles) programme, which, with a collaborative effort and adequate support, will be needed for the deployment of charging infrastructure as well,” he adds.
