Report by

3 Overview
4 Key Highlights
5 Funding in EV Startups

7 11 14
Top VCs, Upcoming
Funding Trend Corporates Vs Startups
EV Focused Funds

20 22 24
Top Revenue Generators, Hub of EV Startups Layoffs and M&A Trend
Unicorn, Soonicorns

26 29 32
Government’s Push, Battery Tech- Future Govt’s Concerns over
Initiatives and Challenges and Opportunities EVs Catching Fire

34 Conclusion
 OVERVIEW
India joined the world in celebrating World EV Day on September 9.
Electric vehicles (EV) have been part of a rising tide across the globe
for more sustainable transportation. In India, after a stop start process,
leading automakers are already in the race to make India a 100%
e-vehicle nation in the next decade with indigenous startups playing
a key role in the mission so far. Rising investor interest, surge in the
number of bookings or vehicles sold and adoption of new technologies
are a few important pointers for EV startups in India for the 2021-2022
period. Tracking this sector matters, for the simple reason that the
auto sector accounts for close to 7% of India’s GDP, and over 40%
share by value of its manufacturing sector.

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 KEY
HIGHLIGHTS
Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR
become Top Hub for EV startups

$673 Mn
04
Funding Startups
in 2022 so far pose big
Soonicorns Challenge
to
Corporates
in Two
EV saw less layoffs than other wheeler
segments EV sales

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 FUNDING IN
EV STARTUPS
IN 2022
While the EV landscape is vast considering incumbents and industry
stalwarts, Entrackr has prepared a report on startups which are
emerging or have achieved product market fit in India. As per data
compiled by our data tracking platform Fintrackr, nearly 43 startups
in the EV mobility space have raised funds worth around $673 million
in 2022 so far. This year has also been the best ever so far in terms
of investments in the segment. Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Yulu,
Altigreen, Blusmart, Battery Smart, Evage, and Statiq are some of
the companies that received top dollar in the EV space during 2022.

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 GROWTH/LATE
STAGE DEALS

Total deals
$435 Mn
Amount raised
Total Funding Raised Industry reports suggest that the Indian electric
vehicle market was valued at $7 billion in 2021,
6 and is expected to reach $30 billion by 2027,
Deals
registering a CAGR of 28.93% in terms of revenue
during the period. As per the report by Ernst &
Young, India's electric vehicle industry attracted
massive investments of about $6 billion in 2021
and is projected to attract $20 billion by 2030.
EARLY STAGE DEALS Till September 15th To put that in context, the passenger car market
was valued at $32.70 billion in 2021, and is
expected to reach a value of $54.84 billion by 2027.
$238 Mn
Amount raised
Soonicorns

37
Deals M&A

Source : Fintrackr
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 FUNDING TREND
As per Fintrackr’s data, there is a rising trend of investment in EV and
EV-focused startups since 2020, when the sector attracted $195 million.
The year 2021 saw $570 million, and 2022 has seen $673 million pour
in so far, with more expected to follow. According to ETAuto Research,
2019 was the breakout year when EV startups managed to mop up
nearly $400 million across 20 deals. That was when SoftBank’s $250
million round helped Ola Electric become the first unicorn in the EV
space. Since then, although no startup in the segment has crossed
the $1 billion valuation benchmark, Ather Energy, Yulu, Bounce Infinity
and a few others are on the ‘soonicorn’ list.

The year-on-year funding growth can be seen in the graph below:

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 $673 Mn
Year-On-Year
EV Startups $570 Mn

Funding
[2020-2022]

$195 Mn

16 deals 47 deals 43 deals

2020 2021 2022 (Till Sep 15th)

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Source : Fintrackr Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap
 Top Fundraising EV Startups

Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Ultraviolette, and Euler Motors have been regular fundraisers and can be found in the last three years' list. Bounce
Infinity, which previously entered the market as a scooter sharing platform, has now forayed into the EV space. The company also acquired
22 Motors in a deal worth $8-10 million in October 2021 to mark its entry into the EV manufacturing space. Entrackr was the first to report the
development.

“We believe that affordable, sturdy and TCO [total cost of ownership] efficient scooters play a very important role in terms of the country transitioning
to EV. Design thinking plays an important role - today most of the EVs come with fixed batteries and millions of them without parking space or
charging point can't switch to EV,” said Vivekananda Hallekere, co-founder and CEO of Bounce Infinity, explaining their reason behind foraying into
this space. Bounce Infinity has launched an electric scooter with dual options i.e. scooters with Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) and with battery and
charger.

Entrackr has prepared a three year chart of the top 10 VC funded startups from 2020 to 2022 so far. Valuation wise, Ola Electric is on top
with $5 billion valuation while its close competitor Ather Energy is valued at less than $1 billion. However, according to Tarun Mehta,
founder and CEO of Ather, the company is considerably undervalued.

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 Top 10 EV Funding
2020 2021 2022
Bounce* $111.5 Mn Ola Electric $300 Mn Ola Electric $200 Mn

Ather Energy $46.2 Mn Sun Mobility $50 Mn Ather Energy $128 Mn As per Fintrackr’s analysis, out of 43
deals, only six are in the growth or late
BluSmart $12 Mn BluSmart $25 Mn Yulu $82 Mn
stage while the rest of them are in the
Oye! Rickshaw $10 Mn Simple Energy $21 Mn Altigreen $39.8 Mn early or seed stage. This reflects the
momentum that has built up only
Ultraviolette $4.1 Mn Revolt Intellicorp $20 Mn EVage $28 Mn
recently, with the segment barely 5
Etrio $3 Mn Ather Energy $17.2 Mn Statiq $25.7 Mn years old from a practical perspective.

CHARGE+ZONE $3 Mn Magenta EV $15 Mn Battery Smart $25 Mn

Euler Motors $2.5 Mn Ultraviolette $15 Mn BluSmart $25 Mn

Grinntech $2 Mn Euler Motors $12.6 Mn Exponent Energy $13 Mn

Ola Electric $1 Mn CHARGE+ZONE $10 Mn River $11 Mn

Fund raised for Bike sharing+BaaS * Till September 15th

Source : Fintrackr
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 TOP VCS,
UPCOMING EV
FOCUSED FUNDS
While 2022 leads in funding for EV startups, most of the large active
investors such as Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Softbank, Matrix
Partners, Accel, Nexus Venture Partners, among others, have stayed
away from investing in this space. That is partly due to the
apprehension that the EV market will eventually be led by global
(Chinese) majors, especially in batteries, something that multiple
Indian startups are trying hard to disprove. Batteries, in fact, have a
disproportionate impact on the segment, thanks to their high share
of overall costs, and will continue to do so in the future too.

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That explains Tiger Global’s Funds Focusing on EV
investment in battery swapping
network startup Battery Smart, a
[2022]
rare exception. The New York-
based fund had led a $25 million
round in the Gurugram-based
firm. Previously, it invested in Ather
$600 Mn $200 Mn $130 Mn $116 Mn $106 Mn
Energy and Ola Electric but did
not participate in their new rounds
in 2022.
Chiratae Ventures* Trifecta Capital Fundamental VC Inventus Capital Arkam Ventures
(Athera Venture Partners)
Similarly, SoftBank has not invested
in any Indian EV startup after Ola
Electric. Lightspeed made its
maiden investment in an EV
startup with a $13 million round in $60 Mn $25 Mn $15 Mn $12.9 Mn $10 Mn
Exponent Energy, a firm building
rapid charging solutions. Other
segments such as fintech, SaaS, Agility Ventures Auxano Capital Antler Real Time Management Capital A
e-commerce, agritech as well as
edtech did not see such a trend To raise* Till September 15th
even during the funding winter.
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Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap
 Despite the absence of traditional VCs, around 10 funds including VC, debt and angels, have announced their plan to back startups in
the EV and mobility space. Fundamental VC, Arkam Ventures, Capital A, Trifecta have announced their new funds in 2022. As per a
Reuters report, Chiratae is also planning to raise a new round to invest in capital intensive sectors like electric mobility. Early stage
fund Blume Ventures, too, is focusing on EVs for the past couple of years. It has backed Yulu, ElectricPe, and BatterySmart, among others.

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 CORPORATES
VS STARTUPS
Amitabh Kant, former CEO of Niti Aayog, recently said that electric
vehicle startups run by young entrepreneurs will disrupt India’s
automotive industry ecosystem.

Speaking at the 62nd annual convention of the Automotive Component

Manufacturers Association (ACMA) in New Delhi, Kant hailed startups
such as Ola, Ather, Revolt, Okinawa, Tork, and Log9 Materials.

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 Numbers also favour startups which are competing neck and neck against industry leaders. This seems especially more likely in the
two wheeler segment, where the volumes lie for now, and in the near future. According to information on the government’s vehicle
registration portal, Vahan, registrations of electric two-wheelers crossed the 80,000 mark for the first time in August 2022. Hero Electric
topped the charts with 10,476 two-wheeler EVs registered followed by Okinawa, Ampere, Ather, TVS and Ola Electric during the last
month. Leading player Hero Electric, which was founded in 2007, is further planning to raise $250 million in a new round, as per media
reports. Last year, it raised $30 million in a Series B round.

Okinawa, which was founded in 2015 and was the first to see customers benefit from the FAME II subsidy from the Government of India,
was in planning to raise funds from private equities to double down its manufacturing capacity.

Notably, Ather, Ola Electric, Revolt, Pure EV and Bounce are in the top 15 chart. Ather spokesperson told Entrackr that the firm has sold
23,408 units of electric scooters in the first eight months of 2022.

For Ola Electric, it has been a steep fall from registration of 12,705 units in April and then just 3,856 units in July, linked to fire incidents
with its batteries and other teething issues.

The registration of electric two wheelers in August and 2022 so far can be seen in the graph below:

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 10,482 Hero Electric

8,558 Okinawa
TOP 15
TWO-WHEELER Temporary setbacks have not deterred Ola Electric’s CEO Bhavish
EV SALES Agarwal, who announced that the company will open more
6,402 Ampere
IN AUGUST experience centers to boost sales. According to him, Ola Electric
already has 20 such centers in the country which will go up to
6,301 TVS 2022 200 by March next year.

5,284 Ather Bounce Infinity, Ultraviolette, Tork, and other startups in two
wheeler electric may also be able to see their names in the top
10 in the coming months. Some of these startups have not
3,435 Ola Electric started production yet. Furthermore, the past trend also
suggests that EV sales go up during the festive season. A clutch
2,578 Bajaj of EV companies namely Bounce Infinity, Ather, BGauss, Ampere,
Okaya, Yug Electric, and PRAKRITI have been listed on
1,647 Revolt e-commerce websites such as Flipkart and Amazon with
1,046 Benling
multiple offers which may help to boost their sales.

880 Okaya
We can see the domination of new age companies including
876 Pure EV
Okinawa, Ola Electric and Ather in overall two wheeler EV sales
627 Jitendra
Startup in 2022 so far.
580 Bounce Non-startup

403 GOGreen
249 Komaki
Source : Vahan and Rushlane
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 Top 5 two-wheeler EV sales
in 2022 so far
Sep
Startup Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug till 25th Overall

Okinawa 5,615 5,923 8,285 11,012 9,305 6,981 8,093 8,558 6253 70,025

Hero Electric 7,764 7,360 13,028 6,578 2,851 6,503 8,953 10,482 6104 69,623

Ola Electric 1,105 3,908 9,140 12,703 9,255 5,883 3,859 3,435 6493 55,781

Ampere 4,220 4,305 6,341 6,542 5,836 6,541 6,313 6,402 4834 51,334

Ather 1,881 2,233 2,233 2,451 3,338 3,816 1,286 5,284 4652 27,174

Powered by Source : Fintrackr Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap

 In the two wheeler segment, Yulu and Zypp Electric are following the path less trodden with their pitch in the shared mobility space. While Yulu scooped
up one of the largest fundings in this space in 2022, Zypp picked up $7 million in 2021 and $1 million in debt in 2022.

Apart from two wheeler EV fleets, Yulu also has a Battery-as-a-Service network in India, having done over 3.5 million battery swaps to date.
Yulu’s co-founder and CEO Amit Gupta told Entrackr that the firm is looking at 10x growth in its EV fleet size, and plans for a network of over 500 battery
swapping stations capable of doing 3 million battery swaps per month in the next 12 months.

Zypp founder Akash Gupta said that the company’s fleet size has grown from 620 to more than 7,000 in FY22 with expansion in 6 cities including Delhi,
Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. The company sources its vehicles and batteries from OEMs. It further plans to deploy 1.5 lakh
e-scooters in India by 2025 and aims for a 10X revenue increase in FY23 and 100X by 2025.

In the electric three wheeler segment, India has seen very few startups, including Euler Motors and Altigreen. Earlier this year, Altigreen raised nearly
$40 million in its Series A round from Sixth Sense Ventures, Reliance New Energy and others.

“Since the launch of our HiLoad EV last year, our order book has grown tremendously, across segments and industries. We have commenced retail
deliveries this year across segments like FMCG and utilities, logistics, pharma, LPG and many more. With this, we continue to maximise deployments across
markets. We also plan to raise our production capacities to 1000 units per month in the next FY,” said Saurav Kumar, Founder and CEO, Euler Motors.

Established legacy companies like Mahindra Electric, Piaggio, Kinetic Green, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata, Kia and others are the leading electric three and four
wheeler players in India. Further, Suzuki and Toyota have finally announced plans to launch electric vehicles in the country. Swedish luxury car maker Volvo
has also announced that 80% of its vehicles in India will be electric by 2025. Volvo currently sells the XC40 Recharge in the country.

The overall EV sales in August 2022 was 88,129 units. These are expected to cross 9 million units by 2027, as per an IVCA-EY-Induslaw report. The
month-on-month EV sales between August 2021 to August 2022 can be seen below:

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 Besides manufacturing, a clutch of startups are
EV Month-wise sales working in the ride hailing space with most of the
vehicles on their platform electric. One such
[2021-2022]
startup generating buzz is BluSmart. The company
recently raised funds and has Mahindra e-Verito,
100k
Tata e-Tigor, Tata Xpres-T EV, Hyundai Kona Electric
88,129
and MG ZS Electric in its fleets. The company claims
79,720 that it runs 2000 plus EVs on Delhi NCR’s roads.
77,128
80k 73,046 73,257 It has also built an infrastructure of more than 1,600
66,745
EV charging points.
Sales (In Units)

“Decreasing battery prices, increase in conventional

60k 54,557
50,866
49,672
fuel costs, government subsidies, leaps in public
charging infrastructure) have been playing an
42,055
38,684 important role in making EVs viable for both
40k
34,316 consumer and business use,” said Anmol Singh
28,906
Jaggi, CEO and co-founder of BluSmart in a
response to Entrackr’s queries. Parent firm Gensol
20k has a strong presence in the renewable energy
Aug
2021
Sept
2021
Oct
2021
Nov
2021
Dec
2021
Jan
2022
Feb
2022
Mar
2022
Apr
2022
May
2022
June
2022
July
2022
Aug
2022
space, burnishing BluSmart’s green DNA credentials.

Ola Electric is expected to debut its electric car in

2024 and the company claims it will have a range
Source : Vahan, JMK Research of around 500 kilometers on a single charge.
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Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap
 TOP REVENUE
GENERATORS,
UNICORN,
SOONICORNS
Since most EV startups are in the early and growth stages, we can
see their businesses in the red. Fintrackr has prepared a list of top
funded startups in 2022 with their revenue, loss and valuation
numbers. Ola Electric raised around $800 million to date at a
valuation of $5 billion. The company managed to post only Rs 0.86
crore revenue in FY21 and incurred a loss of Rs 199 crore. It is yet to
file FY22 financial statements. Ather Energy posted Rs 80 crore
revenue in FY21 which further jumped to Rs 408 crore in FY22 but the
company’s losses spiked to Rs 344 crore during the fiscal year. Yulu,
which recently scooped up $82 million, posted Rs 13.7 crore revenue
against Rs 61 crore losses in FY21.

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 Revenue of Top 10 funded
EV startups in 2022
The rest of the top funded
Startup Total amount raised Current valuation Revenue Loss/Profit Revenue Loss/Profit startups of 2022 couldn’t
($Mn) FY21 (JCr) FY21 (JCr) FY22 (JCr) FY22 (JCr) manage to go past Rs 10 crore
Ola Electric 800 $5 Bn [Unicorn] 0.86 -199 - - in revenue in FY21. Their FY22
results are awaited. Valuation-
Ather Energy 280 Undisclosed [Soonicorn] 80 -233 408 -344
wise, Ather Energy could soon
Yulu 104 Undisclosed [Soonicorn] 13.70 -61 - - become a unicorn while Yulu
BluSmart 62 Undisclosed [Soonicorn] 8.93 -39.45 - - and BluSmart may enter the
club soon. As per a Reuters
Altigreen 41.8 $100-110 Mn 0.91 -14.20 - - report, Blusmart is close to
Battery Smart 32 $126 Mn 0.18 -0.57 - - raising a $250 million round.
The company has raised $62
EVage 28 $80-90 Mn 0.03 -1.66 - -
million so far. Bounce is also
Statiq* 25.85 Undisclosed 1.10 -0.01 - - in talks to raise a new round to
scale up its EV manufacturing
Exponent Energy 18 Undisclosed Nil -0.53 - -
business and is likely to join the
River 13 Undisclosed Nil -0.32 - - soonicorn list.

Standalone, US based* Till September 15th

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Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap
 HUB OF
EV STARTUPS
Like edtech, fintech, SaaS and agritech, Bengaluru has emerged as the
hub of EV startups followed by Delhi NCR. Fintrackr’s database showed
that Bengaluru and Delhi NCR accounted for 70% of the total startups
funded in 2022. Bengaluru was also on top of the list in 2021 and 2020.

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 City-wise funding in EV startups in 2022

Ahmedabad
Mohali

1
TOP 5
2 Delhi-NCR
2020
14
Bengaluru 16 Bengaluru 7
Surat
Delhi-NCR 4
1 Delhi-NCR 14
Hyderabad 1
Mumbai 5 Vadodara 1
Ahmedabad 2 Chennai 1
1 Bhubaneswar Chennai 2
Bhiwandi
1 Mohali 1 2021
5 2 Chennai
Pune 1 Bengaluru 21

Bhiwandi 1 Delhi-NCR 14
1
Mumbai
Mumbai 3
Pune
Surat 1
Hyderabad 3

16 1
Bengaluru Bhubaneswar Pune 2

Till September 15th

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 LAYOFFS
AND M&A TREND
As a young sector that is still to hit top gear, employees joining EV
startups have discovered lower risk of layoffs, even as startups in other
categories have had to shed staff to extend their runway.

Overall, Indian startups saw more than 12,000 layoffs in 2022 so far.
Edtech accounted for more than 30% of the total layoffs. Since the
majority of EV startups are in their early stage, this could be the reason
for fewer layoffs from the space as compared to others.

There were some exceptions, though. In June, Gurugram-based EV

mobility startup Oye Rickshaw fired 40 employees or 20% of its
workforce. Ola Electric is reportedly cutting 200 jobs, mostly in software
development roles. As per the company, it’s part of a restructuring
exercise while it plans to hire around 3,000 to focus on non-software
engineering domains. As per media reports, more than half a dozen
senior executives have quit Ola Electric in the past few months.

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 Acquisitions in EV Startups
2022
Acquirer Acquiree Deal Size

TI Cycles of India (TII) Cellestial E-Mobility $20 Mn The EV space also witnessed a bunch of acquisitions in 2022. As per
BikeWo Munim App Undisclosed Fintrackr’s data, around half a dozen companies got acquired by
EverSource Lithium Urban $50 Mn larger groups this year. It’s worth noting that acquisitions within the
Jindal Mobilitric Earth Energy Undisclosed startup ecosystem for EVs were less as compared to other
ABB Numocity Undisclosed segments such as edtech, fintech and agritech. However, these do
Tube lnvestments IPLTech $30 Mn not include investments, both strategic and exploratory, made by
legacy players into startups. Be it Hero Moto Corp’s large stake in
Oye Rickshaw 40 Layoffs Ola Electric 200 Ather Energy, or recent investments by battery major Amara Raja
Batteries into Log9 Materials, a lithium-ion battery and charging
startup.
2021
Acquirer Acquiree Deal Size

Lords Automotive Devam Electric Vehicles Undisclosed

eBikeGo Kustard Technologies $2 MN

eBikeGo Muvi Undisclosed

Bounce Twenty Two Motors Undisclosed

eBikeGo Velocipedo Undisclosed

Till September 20th

Source : Media reports

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 GOVT’S PUSH,
INITIATIVES AND
CHALLENGES
The Central government has been offering incentives/subsidies on
electric vehicles under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of
Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME II) policy which is valid till 31st March
2024. From an initial focus on all EVs, the FAME scheme has pivoted to
a higher focus on public transportation and infra in recent months.

A Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the National Programme

on Advanced Chemistry Cell (NPACC) to boost indigenous battery
manufacturing capacity, which aims to create 50 GWh of domestic
battery manufacturing capacity has also identified winners.

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 Next on the agenda is a subsidy for companies looking to set up EV charging infrastructure across India. The Union Power Secretary Alok Kumar
recently said that a subsidy of around Rs 4-5 lakh will be provided to set up 200-KW charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. An
IVCA-EY-IndusLaw report claimed that currently, there are only 1,742 charging stations for EVs and the number is expected to go up to 100,000
units by 2027.

According to an ET Prime report, Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn is in talks with the Indian government to introduce its electric battery
swapping infrastructure in India. Moreover, the government is planning to bring in multiple tenders for 50,000 electric buses in the next 1 year and
bring down the tax rates on Lithium-ion batteries.

According to a Bloomberg report, the Indian government and the World Bank are in talks to introduce a risk-sharing mechanism to compensate
banks giving loans for electric vehicle purchases.

Following the centre, state governments are evolving policies to promote EV adoption. Recently, the Delhi government announced that it targets
to achieve 80% electrification of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet within the next three years. It aims to become the first city in India to
have 8,000 electric buses as part of its public transport fleet of 11,000 plus buses.

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 Haryana, Rajasthan, and Tripura have approved supportive
electric vehicle policies while the Uttar Pradesh government
Government’s Initiatives, New Developments has prepared a draft of the policy (2022-2027) with the aim
and Stats of bringing the state into electric vehicle mode by 2030. As
per the policy, 15% rebate will be given on the purchase of
two or four-wheeler electric vehicles, e-buses and a 100%
Central Government
discount on their registration and road tax in the state.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman during union budget announced that the government will bring a battery swapping policy to boost
the use of electric vehicles In Karnataka, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Ltd
A subsidy of around Rs 4-5 lakh will be provided to set up 200-KW charging infrastructure for electric vehicles: Union (Bescom) said that it aims to install public electric vehicle
Power Secretary Alok Kumar
charging stations every 500 meters throughout the city
Government plans to bring in multiple tenders for 50,000 electric buses in the next 1 year and bring down the tax rates on
Lithium-ion batteries. (Bengaluru).
Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn is in talks with the Indian government to introduce its electric battery swapping
infrastructure in India: ET Prime report.
Meanwhile, the states of Maharashtra and Goa scrapped
Indian government and the World Bank are in talks to introduce a risk-sharing mechanism to compensate banks giving
loans for electric vehicle purchases: Bloomberg report. the policy. Both states will stop offering subsidies for electric
There are only 1,742 charging stations for EVs which expected to go up to 100,000 units by 2027: IVCA-EY-IndusLaw report . vehicles (EVs), which is around Rs 10,000, in the state.
Maharashtra is one of the largest states for EVs, and like other
State Governments states with Auto Manufacturing hubs, has been tweaking its
policies to support EV manufacturing too.
Delhi targets to achieve 80% electrification of the DTC fleet within the next 3 years.

Haryana, Rajasthan, and Tripura approve supportive electric vehicle policies A joint report by JMK Research and Climate Trends
Uttar Pradesh has prepared a draft of the policy for 2022-2027. suggested that India may only reach 50 million electric
In Karnataka, Bescom aims to install public electric vehicle charging stations every 500 meters throughout Bengaluru vehicles (EV) sales by 2030, falling behind by 40% on the
Maharashtra and Goa scrapped EV policy. projections by the Indian government. Another report by
Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA)
Image Credit : Vedansh Pratap
has also predicted a significant miss.
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 BATTERY TECH,
FUTURE AND
OPPORTUNITIES
Grid works, manufacturing, battery as a service, installation and
maintenance are some of the important aspects of EVs which are likely
to see more focus from investors as well as the government.

The entry of battery tech startups in the battery as a service and battery
swapping space has also made it easy for electric vehicles to travel
longer distances and lease batteries separately from the vehicle to
save upfront money. Startups like Battery Smart, Lohum, Nexus Battery,
Log 9 Materials, Chargeup, Inverted and Yulu are providing battery
solutions. Several companies are working on innovation in the field of
electric vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells and solid-state
batteries aside from lithium-ion batteries.

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 Battery Smart, which recently raised $25 million in its Series A round, has been working in the battery swapping space. Pulkit Khurana,
co-founder of Battery Smart told Entrackr that it completed around 0.7 million swaps in 2021 and has served over 3 million swaps in just 9 months
in 2022. According to Khurana, the company is at half a million swaps per month run rate. Battery swapping has been focused on the large
fleet of three wheeler EVs (E- rickshaws) in the public transport space for now.

“We see Battery Leasing (Rapid charging) emerging as a more promising space than the battery swapping. From logistical and inventory
related nightmares to safety concerns, from limiting the scope for emerging technologies to complicating supply chain, battery swapping
does pose serious challenges which only seem to aggravate as we transition from smaller to medium and then larger vehicles,” said Akshay
Singhal, co-founder and CEO of Log9 Materials.

“Battery swapping has to be visualised for India differently and not the Taiwanese model of only automated swapping stations. India is blessed
with mom-and-pop stores and they all can be an effective part of the network. Battery dimensions and connectors shouldn't be standardised
very early in the game which will kill innovation,” said Hallekere. According to him, EV gives a huge opportunity to decouple the battery and offer
a scooter without battery at less than 50% of the price and offer battery as a service.

Industry experts estimate that the cost of the electricity required to charge an EV is around 40% less than the equivalent petrol cost. While most
EV charging in India is dependent on power which is still sourced from carbon-emitting fuels like coal, the cost will be lower if charging is done
through solar PV systems or at free charging stations.

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 Bringing a solar powered model in EVs can do wonders at least for low-speed electric vehicles. Canadian company Capsolar and German
startup Sono Motors are working in this field. In India, Mumbai-based Atum Charge claims to be India's first self-sustaining solar-powered
EV charging stations. According to the company, it has installed 250 solar powered charging stations across Telangana, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. However solar based charging has obvious
limitations when it comes to cars and fast charging, due to space limitations.

New age companies in India should eye this space which can further help in reducing carbon footprint.

During the Union Budget for 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the government will bring a battery swapping
policy to boost the use of electric vehicles in the country in view of space constraints for setting up charging stations.

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 GOVT CONCERNS
OVER EVS
CATCHING FIRE
The reports of electric two wheelers or four wheelers catching fire are still
a worry for customers and companies. Be it a Tata Nexon Electric SUV to
Okinawa and Ola electric scooters, the incident of electric vehicles
catching fire forced the Indian government to order a probe. The
investigation by the Defence Research Department of India (DRDO)
revealed shocking details during the investigation. The findings of the
investigation said that deficient battery management system, absence
of proper venting mechanism, use of poor quality cells and lack of basic
identification system for failed cells were the primary reasons behind the
fire incidents.

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 In July, the Indian government served a show cause notice to all electric vehicle manufacturers whose electric vehicles caught fire in recent
times. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), which comes under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, also issued notices to four to
five EV two-wheeler makers after the incidents.

Earlier this month, the Road ministry amended battery safety norms which will be effective from October 1st. The amendments include
additional safety requirements related to battery cells, on-board chargers, design of battery packs, and thermal propagation due to internal
cell short circuits leading to fire.

EMO, a startup founded by two former executives of Ola Electric, are pitching a solution to the EV fire issue. As per the Bengaluru-based startup,
it has been testing its battery pack in adverse conditions and is now able to offer a full fire safety assurance to customers. Rahul Patel and
Sheetanshu Tyagi, founders of the company, earlier worked in the battery department at Ola Electric.

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 CONCLUSION
EVs have clearly made the journey from a novelty to an option at the
edge of mainstream transportation in the past few years. Especially in
two wheelers. Two key factors that will impact growth are energy prices,
and raw material costs, especially for Lithium and linked to that,
Lithium-ion batteries. Projections made till 2020 hope for stable energy
prices, and a gradual decline in lithium battery costs, something that
has not followed the script at all, risking projections.

With numbers will also come heavier regulation when it comes to costs
related to safety and other testing, which can weigh down startups
especially. Startups will need to plan for these eventualities much more
as they move from concept to execution.

Similarly, the spread and availability of charging networks and the cost
of charging is already beginning to impact perceptions, in some ways
replacing the earlier ‘range anxiety’ with ‘charging anxiety’ for potential
buyers. On the other hand, existing auto majors who had stayed on the
sidelines waiting for the market to mature further are finally making
decisive moves, which augurs well for both quality and availability. For
startups, this will create a fresh set of possible opportunities, and from
legacy players, threats too.

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 FOUNDERS’
PERSPECTIVE
Entrackr reached out to around a dozen founders in EV space to
understand the current scenario of the ecosystem. We have
shortlisted some important comments by them in our report.

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 Vivekananda Hallekere
(Co-founder and CEO, Bounce Infinity)
On EV fire and safety
Batteries catching fire has been in news, we would love
to tell you more about why this happens and why
Bounce is confident in battery safety. The learning is
that it's not just one thing but many things to be done
right. Bounce has been one of the largest high-speed
EV fleet operators in India since 2019 and we have had
the experience of running and operating large fleets
across cities like Bangalore, Hassan, Vijaywada and
Hyderabad in varied weather conditions, including hot
summers for over two years and millions of kilometres.
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On Battery tech
Bounce uses premium grade cells, high quality
battery packers using the right infra & technology for
Packing the Batteries & testing them and Bounce
carries out stringent QCs at the time of purchasing
batteries. Additionally, Bounce does not use rapid
charging, which can be detrimental to the health of
the battery by making the battery behave erratically
and this could adversely impact the thermal
management.
 Akash Gupta
(Co-founder and CEO, Zypp)

EVs catching fire Expectation from govt Future of battery swapping

EVs catching fire because of the three main reasons. The Government has good
policies like FAME. Delhi EV
1. Mechanical issues: While manufacturing battery policy is also pushing
packing has to be as per the safety standards. industry and individuals
to go 100% electric.
2. Electrical issues: Right BMS should be used to control Additionally, We would like
various voltage and currents. EVs to be part of national
logistic policy from the
3. Thermal issues:The right cooling mechanisms to be government with mandates
used so that batteries don’t catch the fire. Most of the and special focus to drive
current OEMs are falling short on one of these. faster EV Adoption
With the EVs being prominent in the
Indian market, we believe that battery
swapping is the future. While most EVs
take 4-6 hours of charging time, battery
swapping takes only a couple of
minutes which is the best solution for
balancing the demand and supply.
Zypp electric has two battery swapping
partners where Zypp electric’s driver
can swap batteries in a 10 minutes of
time.

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Amit Gupta
(Co-founder and CEO, Yulu)
Shared mobility
Consumers are showing growing
preference for pay-per-use vs asset
ownership across categories and
that’s where shared mobility (MaaS)
and Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS)
hold a lot of promise for growth. It
shows that the growth of EVs in India
will be significantly led by new age
e-mobility solutions, which solves a
lot of consumer commute problems
today.
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Safety
Yulu’s EV batteries are extensively tested
for their safety, protocols and compliance
levels before their deployment. We have
also put in place rigorous Quality Control
Processes. Before any new battery is
inducted into our system, Pre-Dispatch
Inspection is conducted at the
manufacturer's end and Inward Quality
Check at Yulu's end. We charge and
discharge the battery at a slow rate so
that the battery packs are not subjected to
electrical and thermal stress which further
enhances the safety of the overall process.
Govt policy
There should be inclusion of Low
Speed Electric Vehicles (LSEVs) in the
ambit of FAME-2. Recent announcement
of reducing the GST on batteries from
18% to 5% was an example of the
government's focus and intent to help
the Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS)
category. However, high GST on
additional float batteries is another
challenge. While for electric vehicles
that come with batteries, the GST has
been reduced, for standalone batteries
the GST is still high. A battery swapping
model operates on a float of standalone
batteries and the GST rates for these
additional standalone batteries is much
higher, which needs to be reduced.
 Anmol Singh Jaggi
(Founder and CEO, BluSmart)

Fundraising and shared mobility Govt policy

From a ride hailing startup perspective such as We believe with the respective Governments doing
BluSmart, EVs solve a fundamental unit economics their bit, it’s now an onus of mobility players to adopt
problem plaguing the ride hailing industry, making the new paradigm of transportation and we are
EV ecosystem play startups such as BluSmart an happy that BluSmart is leading the baton on this
appealing prospect from investment point of view. front.
Now,as investors across the globe are pushing on
the path to profitability and sustainability both from
an economic and environmental standpoint, EV
startups are reaping the benefits and the attention
they deserve.

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 Spokesperson
(Ather Energy)
EVs catching fire and
safety measures
Given the nascency of the industry and
limited access to real-world testing data,
OEMs must take a conservative view to
design for safety that is well beyond
government requirements. Once we
see this discipline and approach
proliferate across the industry, we will
see such fire-related issues going down.
OEMs must go beyond mandated
standards to ensure safety and
performance.
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Govt policy
We hope the FAME-II subsidy continues
well beyond 2023 to keep up the
consumer demand and encourage
better EV vehicles to be introduced by
OEMs. The EV sector requires such
incentives to accelerate manufacturing
and large scale consumer adoption.
Battery tech
Ather Energy is one of the few OEMs
that has spent years developing the
battery and the vehicle from scratch
keeping in mind customer safety. We
don’t buy battery packs off the shelf.
The design and manufacturing are
in-house, based on local Indian
conditions. Despite being a startup, we
are already in our 3rd generation of
batteries and will launch our 4th
generation battery pack soon.
 Pulkit Khurana
(Founder and CEO, Battery Smart)
Growth in 2020-22 period
After the second wave of COVID, we saw
remarkable growth of 10X, and are continuing
to scale rapidly. Today, we have 7500+ electric
rickshaws on our platform, 275+ live swap
stations, and a network that spans 12 cities.
And we’re just getting started. We have
ambitious plans to target a $50b battery-as-
a-service and swapping market.
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Govt policy
We hope that the policy will
address the industry demand to
lower GST on batteries and bring
swappable batteries under the
umbrella of the FAME subsidy.
Getting Li-ion batteries under
these subsidies will enhance
buyer confidence and do away
with the apprehensions of EV
users regarding the recurring
investment involved in batteries.
Battery tech
For the battery swapping ecosystem
to keep growing, it's vital to ensure that
the infrastructure continues to develop.
This development should include
focusing on manufacturing in India
and lowering reliance on lithium-ion
imports. Standardisation will also
benefit the sector by increasing vehicle
compatibility and ensuring battery
interoperability amongst different types
of vehicles on a swapping network.
 Akshay Singhal
(Founder and CEO, Log 9 Materials)
EV fire and safety
Very simply put, every single OEM and technology
provider must be invested in designing technologies
in India, for India. Majority of the incidences reported
this year were all a result of and a testimony to what
would happen should we blindly carry forward a
technology from another market. India is a different
market, both in terms of operations and climatic
conditions which calls for products designed for
more endurance, wider temperature range, and which
can only happen if the offering has been designed
ground up.
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Govt policy
We do recognize that the Govt. of India is actively
working towards developing a progressive EV policies
that will usher in faster adoption of EV’s in India. While
some of the EV policies are in line with the industry
vision and ease of doing business. Some of the EV
policies can definitely be improved and some new
policy frame work needs to be brought in for example
in Battery as a Service (BaaS) for fixed battery we
definitely need a robust and clear EV guideline from
the Govt.

Saurav Kumar
(Founder and CEO, Euler Motors)
Growth and new products
The customer response has been excellent,
and so far we have orders of 9000+ units
already. We are expanding rapidly, in terms
of manufacturing and retail, to cater to the
growing demand for cargo three wheelers
across the country. We interacted with
thousands of drivers/ customers, across
markets to develop our HiLoad EV, which
now boasts of the highest payload capacity
(688 kg), highest range (151 km) and highest
battery capacity (12.4 kwh) in the segment.
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Safety and battery tech
From a commercial vehicle perspective,
rough terrains or overloading conditions
can lead to massive vibrations that may
generate high amount of current, and the
heat to shoot up. Then, over heating
batteries or thermal runaways lead to a
higher energy release inside the battery Govt policy
pack, which means the design of battery
has to be such that the most heated The government is laying the
components are traced well away from foundation for EV adoption and
the cell. Ambient temperatures often put undertaking several steps to
stress on the batteries, so advanced boost the growth of the EV sector
technologies like liquid cooling help in in India. The focus should also be
maintain the battery temperature between on cells and semiconductors and
25-40 degrees. Euler Motors became the localization of these in India and
first OEM in the EV industry to integrate liquid developing a robust indigenous
cooling and advanced BTMS, which keeps EV ecosystem.
the battery temperature at optimum levels
and superior battery performance, despite
the topography or weather conditions.
 Report ends.

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