[Startup Bharat] Chandigarh-based EVage is driving towards a greener future with its Made-in-India four-wheeler

For all anyone who have a true entrepreneurial spirit and mindset, they look to venture into an area that’s unexplored and filled with challenges.

Similarly, Inderveer Singh ventured into the electric vehicle (EV) section when it was in its nascent stage in India. He started EVage, an electric vehicle startup, together with Pulkit Srivastava and Harnoor Kaur, having an emphasis on four wheelers.

The Chandigarh-based startup has been founded around 2014-15 when Inderveer, who’d spent around a decade in the automotive sector, decided to launch his own venture in the EV space, and then there were literally no players in the electric four-wheeler category then.

The startup is currently ready to showcase the world on the kind of strides it has made within the last five decades.

After having built an electric four wheeler out of scratch, Inderveer states, “We decided to focus on producing sustainable clean transportation, and we now believe the world wants it even more. ”

ALSO READ

Also Read

Why Shreyas Shibulal is gambling big on electric vehicles in India

The workings

Inderveer states, he bootstrapped his venture onto a shoestring budget and scouted for talent who believed in his exalted ideals. Inderveer and Pulkit have been friends since their school days.

Before Inderveer could proceed with his partnership, he decided to create a comprehensive study on the wide trends and what might be the likely result from an automotive perspective.

&#x201CWe analyzed on how India would appear like and saw there was a tech convergence together with the development of e commerce. This section would need transportation the most,” states Inderveer.

Focus Locations

Inderveer was very obvious on how his EV four-wheeler are. It should be durable, easily manufacturable, and have good battery life to give longer mileage. He also determined the four-wheeler would focus on the logistics section and not too much about the passenger group.

The Indian EV market is presently dominated by the two-wheeler section with passenger car sales running into a couple of tens of thousands per year. For FY20, the number of passenger EVs sold in India was only 3,400, based on information provided by Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).

Even in the four-wheeler category, the marginal dominance has been by the retail market and very little of the industrial segment including the fleet operators. From a strictly B2B perspective, where the requirement of vehicles is largely for products transportation, there is no credible EV alternative. It is this space that EVage is looking to fill.

The four-wheeler EV market in India is forecast to reach around $700 million by 2025, based on industry estimates, from the level of $71 million in 2017.

At the exact identical point, Inderveer realised that he will face competition from the powerful established car industry who might easily develop an EV automobile, and EVage needed to do anything different.

&#x201CWe believed if there has been a way of looking at it otherwise and determined that we need to benchmark ourselves with the aerospace business,” states Inderveer.

EVage managed to attract top engineering talent from top aviation companies that were eager to leave their corporate careers behind and pursue the dream of creating a four wheeler EV out of ground zero in India.

The challenges were very much there to its startup since the ecosystem around EVs from the country were still not designed, which intended lack concerning talent, abilities, and expertise. The tech around battery was in the first stages and this supposed that EVage needed to work by itself in section.

EVage designed exoskeleton structure (left) and its commercial Automobile

ALSO READ

Also Read

Ola Electric set to hire 2,000 globally, 1,000 in this quarter

Similarly, there are no decent testing tracks certain for four wheelers in which this startup could gauge the performance of its car or truck. Additionally there were no established networks on which they get out to for any type of tips or advice. It was a singular journey for EVage.

Despite this environment, EVage developed an exoskeleton for producing its four-wheeler. The startup claims the only other firm that has developed such a structure is Tesla because of its trucks.

“The whole idea of having a exoskeleton was to make the Entire production process extremely easy where the vehicles are lightweight, highly modular, and also a scalable platform,” states Inderveer.Building from scratch

The startup needed to literally construct everything from scratch, for example, engine and fuel cell technologies. It has now built a complete ecosystem in which it can completely create a car or truck. It has applied for around 21 patents to its technology platform it’s developed.

Pulkit says#x201C;What our group of engineers have done is developing a platform where seven different vehicles could be constructed. ”

Today, EVage has established its four-wheeler EV, that has already undergone more than a lakh kilometres of analyzing and is waiting to hit the market.

Inderveer says#x201C;We are very conscious about the attention to detail. We might have ordered things from out, but we have given the respect to the platform that needs to be given from an engineering viewpoint. ”

According to him, the startup has created a common platform design of EV production with its exoskeleton where different vehicles could be manufactured from the exact identical structure.

It was also a very conscious decision on part of EVage to concentrate on the four-wheeler section as the entrance barrier is quite high.

Pulkit says#x201C;The four-wheeler section is not an easy business to enter as it’s capex hefty, but we still now have, over the years, built the proprietary technology and deep expertise. ”

EVage is currently ready to showcase the world on the type of vehicle it’s built and Inderveer claims that it has been receiving enough traction for its own merchandise.

However, the startup denied to divulged the pricing of its car or truck.

Investors validation

In this journey, EVage has also managed to draw investor attention from a number of the major names in the EV section, and recently raised pre-Series A financing. These days, it has group size of around 30 individuals.

Anand Shah, former co-founder of all Ola Electric, is the investor in the startup. BryAir Director Varun Pahwa; DMI Group Partners’ Anmol Nayyar; and Paolo Castagna, former MD of all Fiat India, have also invested in EVage.

Plans ahead

EVage states it plans to launch its vehicle in the next four to eight months. The time also seems to be opportune for its startup since there is currently an increasing consciousness, especially one of the top corporates, to possess sustainability on top of their agenda.

By way of instance, Flipkart has already announced that it plans to get 100 percent electric transportation fleet by 2030.

Inderveer says#x201C;Our focus is to be a larger player in the electric mobility space and also make lives better for everyone. We think that we have the first mover advantage and will search for a higher market share. ”

“Our chassis is rock solid and we’ve got information of running our vehicle for at least 1.2 lakh kilometres. This is about a new car firm of individual India,” adds Pulkit.

EVage plans to make the vehicle by itself and thinks it could do it in half the cost in comparison to other existing manufacturers.

Inderveer states, &#x201CWe consistently believed that focus on the process and results will follow. It is the journey that provides us the pleasure. ”

Edited by Megha Reddy

Want to earn your startup travel smooth? YS Education brings a detailed Funding Course, in which you also get an opportunity to pitch your business plan to leading traders. Click on here to find out more.

Article Source and Credit yourstory.com https://yourstory.com/2020/09/startup-bharat-chandigarh-electric-vehicle-evage-four-wheeler Buy Tickets for every event – Sports, Concerts, Festivals and more buytickets.com