Week 34 (Aug 16 - 22)
In this week's round up - Etrio eLCV launch, Korean automaker Edison to enter India, Lightning Logistics launches EV last mile delivery service and India's state bus fleet to be 44% electric by 2040.
India’s first retrofitted eLCV: Etrio’s electric Tata Ace. Founded in 2017, the Hyderabad based startup first entered the retro fitment space with a product for passenger cars but soon pivoted to intra-city trucks given the sheer size of the market and the potential of EVs in the segment. The entire process follows a 150 point checklist in which health and safety parameters are checked before the internal combustion engine is removed and replaced with a motor, controller, battery, eAxle, and wiring harness. The eLCV comes with 20Kw and a 96V motor that has a range of 120km. The startup has already retrofitted 50 Tata Ace vehicles and has an order book of 1500 more from some major e-commerce players. Etrio also has products for 3-wheeler and e-bike market too.
Korean EV maker Edison comes to India. South Korean e-bus manufacturer Edison Motors is looking to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Uttar Pradesh. The Rs 5000 crore investment will be spread over 3 tranches and will generate employment for 5000 people. As per the proposal, the company would source up to 90% of the machine parts for their EV manufacturing facility from local vendors and manufacturers. Earlier in March this year they signed a similar agreement to set up a manufacturing facility in Haryana and in May signed a contract to export 100 buses to India.
Lightning Logistics aims to be India’s ‘one-stop’ answer for last-mile delivery. Earlier in Jan this year, Shreyas Shibulal, son of Infosys co-founder SD Shibulal, started Micelio - a Rs 140 Cr fund dedicated to clean-energy startups. The Bangalore-based fund plans to invest in startups in the EV space, across areas such as mobility, software applications, energy, and charging infrastructure. Lightning Logistics, a venture incubated within the fund, is an electric vehicle-related B2B delivery firm that provides customers intelligent, data-driven logistical solutions. With a fleet of 1000 vehicles in Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad they are focusing on grocery, e-commerce, and mom/pop stores
India's municipal bus fleet to be 44% electric by 2040. As per a report from Bloomberg NEF, as many as 79% of EV bus sales to the Indian States will be electric by 2040. This is driven by policy measures and decreasing battery prices that will make EV buses cheaper to operate than diesel buses by 2030.
Karnataka must create demand incentives. In 2017, Karnataka had released its EV policy, but 3 years later, the policy has had little impact on the deployment of electric vehicles. The focus of the policy was to promote local manufacturing and setting up infrastructure but unlike Delhi, it was light on demand incentives.
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