The electric commercial vehicle segment is booming and the adoption seems to be faster than the passenger vehicle space. The case in point has been Bengaluru-based start-up Altigreen Propulsion Labs' recent push as the electric commercial three-wheeler company is making significant strides in recent times. The manufacturer recently raised Rs. 300 crore in a fresh round of funding, which included backing from Reliance New Energy Limited (RENL). The manufacturer is scaling up, and how, as EV numbers grow rapidly. Providing some insight, Altigreen's founder Dr Amitabh Saran shared with carandbike how the adoption of electric commercial vehicles will help the passenger segment as well.
Also Read: Reliance Industries Invests Over Rs. 50 Crore In Electric Vehicle Start-Up Altigreen
The Altigreen neEV electric three-wheeler recently embarked on a journey from Mysuru to Bengaluru completing the 150 km journey on a single charge
Speaking to carandbike in a recent interaction, Amitabh said, "I personally think it will be the other way around. I feel commercial vehicles and this is not just about electric mobility. You will notice this in anything, whether it is CNG, whether it is any other technology form, I feel it is first the commercial vehicle that shifts on to something because there is a certain benefit that they get. Passenger vehicles anyway are not used as much. Think about it. Passenger vehicles drive 30-40 kilometres while a commercial vehicle is driving 200-300 kilometres. Whether it is a three-Wheeler, whether it is a small commercial vehicle, commercial vehicles are the first ones to adopt the technology because it makes business sense to them."
He continued, "There will always be a starting point that says that yes, it has made business sense to me and it is my strong conviction that emerging markets to work bottom-up. We all wait and see if you know how other lowest of the low categories are performing."
According to the data shared by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), retail sales of electric vehicles stood at over 4.29 lakh between April 2021 and March 2022. The segment saw a 200 per cent increase in volumes, up from nearly 1.35 lakh units sold in FY2021 and a hike of 155 per cent over 1.68 lakh units sold in FY2020. The two- and three-wheeler segments particularly led the growth during the last financial year with 2.31 lakh units and 1.78 lakh units respectively sold. In contrast, the passenger vehicle segment saw about 17,802 units sold in FY2021.
The neEV electric cargo three-wheeler is the brand's first offering with more products to follow
"I think passenger vehicles are the last to convert. They are the most conservative. Their needs are also a lot more stringent. I want a vehicle that can do a few 100 km, battery prices are very, very high. All kinds of constraints. [Commercial vehicles] have a fixed route - point to point. You know commercial vehicles have a different way of operation. And hence it makes sense for their adoption to happen first. Now whether it is passenger helping cargo or cargo helping passenger, I think it will be a mix of that," he added further.
Also Read: Electric Vehicles Is All Set To Revolutionise Last-Mile Deliveries: Altigreen
It's also noteworthy that the passenger vehicle four-wheeler segment has seen the least innovation as far as the number of legacy players is concerned. Altigreen, much like Euler Motors, and Etrio is a homegrown start-up. The only exceptions in this are Mahindra Electric, Piaggio and Kinetic Green.
More recently, Altigreen neEV electric cargo three-wheeler completed the journey from Mysuru to Bengaluru on a single charge. The 150+ km intercity drive was completed with about 25 km to spare in terms of range, while averaging speeds of 45-50 kmph, revealed Saran. The model was powered by an 11 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that's been developed by the company among other components.
He also pointed out that "India is not a use case scenario, it's an abuse case," given our soaring temperatures and ideas of overloading remain prominent issues in the real world for EVs. At a time when battery fires have been a constant hassle across the EV sector, Saran spoke about how companies need to take ownership of their products and technologies.
Altigreen is expanding its production facility that will have an installed capacity of 40,000 units per annum to meet the growing demand
He explained, "From a battery perspective, we have always been careful. Our batteries are IP67 [rated], we get cells that operate at 40+ degrees Centigrade. We have designed our pack in such ways that we are constantly monitoring this because of our own BMS. It is always on the cloud. There is enough AI that can capture what's happening and take corrective action before any specific event happens. We constantly revisiting there. If we find anything we going to be changing it. But at this point, we're absolutely certain that whatever is happening in vehicles today is all because it's not being in business properly. It is my conviction."
The next few months will see Altigreen scale up massively and this will include new products in the commercial EV space. The company is also in the process of expanding its production capacity and aims to have an installed capacity of 40,000 units by the end of this fiscal (FY2023) in order to meet the growing demand. The team also moved to a new office space in June this year. Altigreen aims to raise another round of investment to further.
