Electric Vehicles brands that are transforming the landscape of Automobile Industry in India

The Government of India intends to have EV sales penetration of 30 per cent for private cars, 70 per cent for commercial vehicles and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers by 2030 as there is an immediate need to decarbonize the transport sector. This is in line with the Prime Minister’s announcement at the COP-26, that India will achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070.

In India, the second phase of the FAME India Scheme 2022 aims to support, through subsidies, approximately 7000 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars, and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. Attractive economics and push by governments has already increased the demand for EVs substantially, and the industry is set to grow to USD 150 billion by 2030, according to estimates by RevFin Services – a financial technology (FinTech) digital lending platform focused at increasing EVs' adoption for under-banked & underserved.  

Many brands and start-ups are venturing into the market with EVs to transform the automobile industry landscape in India; a few examples:-

ElectronEV, based out of the Bay Area in the USA and Hyderabad, India was founded in 2018 with a single-minded vision: Bringing the power of EV platforms to Light, Medium, and Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicles. Their mission is to raise ‘N’ to the power of ‘EV’. ElectronEV plans to introduce its proprietary EV technology through its electric vehicles and end-to-end mobility solutions for markets like India, South East Asia, Australia, and Europe. Also, the founders envision a net-zero carbon infrastructure from well to wheels. They believe that battery-electric powertrains will be the most efficient to manufacture and own in the long run.

Volta Trucks was founded in 2017 to accelerate the transition to full electric trucks. Sweden-based all-electric commercial vehicle start-up, in September 2020 introduced its Volta Zero – acclaimed to be the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle.

Volta began the development of the production vehicle in January 2021, and by December 2021, the first road-ready Design Verification prototype was completed. Before the start of series production in late 2022, production verification vehicles will be built for customer evaluation in the middle of 2022 at the Volta Trucks contract manufacturing site in Steyr, Austria.

Infraprime Logistics Technologies, started in 2017, the company is developing electric heavy duty commercial goods carriers which have wide ranging applications in mines, ports, infrastructure development, construction, and inter-warehouse goods transportation. Infraprime have pioneered several industry first initiatives including just-in-time delivery of construction material, deployment of electric trucks, roll-out of driver app with widespread adoption, while minimizing incidences of miscommunication and delay.

Tadpole Projects, a startup electric-mobility company incubated at Technology Innovation Hub (TIH) for Cobotics, of IIT Delhi - the only home grown company retrofitting ICE to EVs. Launched in August 2020, Tadpole Projects is the pioneer in retrofitting ICE cars and aims to address issues around fossil-fuel-based vehicles, scrapping policy, and expensive vehicles by retrofitting, thus making renewable mobility accessible to everyone. Headquartered in Delhi, Tadpole Projects performs R&D and advanced testing of vehicles incubated under IIT-Delhi.

REE Automotive is an electric platform leader reinventing e-mobility. Unrestricted by legacy thinking, REE has developed the next-generation EV platform, which is entirely flat, scalable and modular, providing customers full design freedom to create the broadest range of EV and autonomous vehicles for current and future applications. Its services include last-mile delivery, MaaS, light to medium-duty EV logistics and robo taxis.

HOP Electric Mobility, India's fastest-growing electric vehicle manufacturer, is a successful mandate holder of the Government of India's ambitious Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Auto. Working on the B2C and B2B market with three E’s - electric, energy, environment; HOP provides a line-up of electric two-wheelers (e-scooters - HOP LEO & HOP LYF, and soon to be launched high-speed electric-motorcycle HOP OXO).

Furthermore, HOP Electric Mobility has also embarked on its multi-battery modular platform's design and engineering journey. The company is developing Gen 2 Smart Batteries and Swapping stations. It will roll out two new products on the new platform supported by Gen 2 batteries and a swapping station in FY23.

EVage is India’s leading all-electric, purpose-built commercial vehicle OEM that, by combining the creativity of aeronautical engineering with the expertise of automotive design, has transformed the transportation sector. The company has developed ground-breaking products like the single modular skateboard capable of building multiple vehicle types, a lightweight yet tough exoskeleton covered with an innovative space-grade composite material, and ultra-stable and fast-charging batteries with advanced chemistry. All of them are produced in their incredibly effective Modular Micro Manufacturing factory setup. Their “Exoskeleton Structure” acts as a practical standard architecture for trucks, vans, SUVs, and delivery cars. The company presently employs about 50 people with experience in the automotive and aviation industries at its R&D and robotics centre in Punjab, India.