“For me, it’s important to build good partnerships rather than score centuries. Once, you have those partnerships, you will also get centuries,” said one of the greatest Indian cricketers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Eka, the subsidiary of Pinnacle Industries and one of the youngest electric vehicle start-up focusing on the commercial vehicle segment too seems to be a firm believer in the concept of partnerships. In its mission to democratise EVs, it believes partnerships will play a key role to bring the cost down.
“We are the only company in the country, which is saying that we want to share EV technology. Once our technology is mature, which it’ll be now when people see the vehicles, we are open to saying somebody wants to license to make a vehicle in India. We are prepared to do that. If somebody wants to license it in the export markets, we are willing to do that,” says Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Chairman & MD, Pinnacle Industries.
Pinnacle has been in the component business for more than 25 years. Not many know, but the company first partnered with Netherland-based VDL Group’s electric bus division about eight years ago.
The company believed that the transition to electric mobility was “a once-in-a-hundred-year opportunity” for the Indian automotive industry. This was the story behind the inception of the Eka brand.
“We realised that the whole ecosystem is going to be different. Normally for a component company, it is very difficult to become an OEM in India. And on the other hand, in the commercial vehicle segment there have always been only a few OEMs in the country,” says Dr Mehta.
Starting with a clean slate
While at present, there are a number of players entering the electric bus segment, thanks to the initial push by the government for procuring EVs for public transport, Eka is of the philosophy that one cannot just solely rely on tenders to drive growth. There is a need for developing the market, by introducing products designed and made in India, but with world-class technologies. All the while keeping the cost parameter in check.
Dr Mehta believes that an electric or hydrogen powertrain, the starting point for new players as well as legacy players offers a level playing field. Secondly, start-ups do not have the baggage of legacy players and can start with a clean slate operation by designing the vehicle from the ground up. “Lastly, I am of the view that by 2030, outside of China, India will be definitely the largest EV market (in commercial vehicles) in the world in volume terms,” he adds.
As part of its business plans, the company is gearing up to launch its first electric bus, an e-LCV this year. It has already invested around Rs 200 crore towards product development and another Rs 200 crore is being lined up in the next 6-7 months.
Dr Mehta also reveals that Eka is fully geared and capable to introduce hydrogen buses in the coming days. In fact, he says, it has already signed up with a Pune-based company to pilot hydrogen buses in the country. He believes that from an environmental point of view, the adoption of EVs in the commercial vehicle space is going to have the biggest impact on India.
Partnerships and inflection point
The initial cost of electric vehicles at present is more expensive than its IC-sibling, but over the course of years, the maintenance and running costs of the former is much cheaper. On the other hand, the number of moving parts in an electric vehicle engine is just around 20 versus around 2,000 in an IC-engine vehicle.
No wonder, that when it comes to designing and manufacturing an EV, partnerships which are in-sync with each other are extremely crucial. Eka has inked several partnerships with leading suppliers and start-ups to introduce technological advanced and safe solutions. Be it partnering American Axle for e-Beam tech, Israel’s EVR Motors for e-motors, Log9 Materials for fast-charging tech or NuPort Robotics for Level 2 ADAS tech among others.
Dr Mehta has a clear view that the adoption of EVS in India will be primarily driven by two-wheelers and commercial vehicles.
“The inflection point is already there to some degree in the electric commercial vehicle segment. If you run an EV for typically more than one shift, just then the TCO parity already makes sense. Now as battery costs come down further, the parity will become even better. So electric cars from a commercial point of view is going to become a no-brainer. If you see the shift (read adoption of new technologies) in India, people catch on to it very fast. Nobody used to have small CNG LCV 4-years ago.”
“In just 18 months almost 30-40 percent of sales come from CNG vehicles. Similarly for electric SCV, if you run your vehicle, on a very optimal basis, which is what a lot of the fleet operators are doing. Then electric makes all the sense in the world, and which is why the shift will happen very quickly. It’s going to be an issue of supply of the correct vehicles, supply chains being built up, availability of critical components, and availability of, the component supply chain in India. That is going to be the bigger challenge,” explains Dr Mehta.
Future products and productions plans
One thing that Dr Mehta is clear about for Eka is “that the startup model has to be different from an OEM works. If we go the OEM way, we will kill our business. An OEM usually thinks of 30 months timeline for a new product. At Eka, we all think very differently from that perspective otherwise we are going to be stretched on offset. We don’t have the CAPEX of that of an OEM or the extensive manpower.”
“Our thought is clear, we must get our product right under any condition, because we don’t think we will get a second chance. Secondly, we must make the product right. We are not going to get a second chance to make it right. For that we are talking about a modular plant, which is not about having a 100,000 unit module, but a very cost effective lean module that will leverage high technology to deliver first time right.”
What does it mean? It means that unlike the traditional set-up of manufacturing and assembling everything inhouse, the company will rely on the expertise of its suppliers to produce the components, which will then be assembled at its plants. Thus, giving it the flexibility of scaling up the production as per its requirement without committing heavily into CAPEX. The same line would have the flexibility to produce different products as per demand on the same line.