The Hyderabad-based, new age e-mobility startup, Zero21 plans to introduce a range of high-speed e3Ws, including a passenger carrier and a goods carrier, by the end of April 2022.
Estimated to cost around INR 3.30 lakh before FAME-II subsidies, the e3Ws are expected to come with an 8kW motor for the loader and a 5kW motor for the passenger carrier.
In an interview with Mobility Outlook, Srinivas Rani, Founder and CEO, Zero21, stated that the company expects to retail around 3,500 units of its products in FY23, including 2,500 units of the high-speed e3Ws and about 1,000 units of the low-speed e3Ws that it currently retails.
The company has a product portfolio consisting of two low-speed e3Ws, one each for the passenger and goods carrier segments. Priced at INR 1.75 lakh, these EVs come with a 1.5kW motor delivering a peak output of 2kW.
Besides EV manufacturing, it also operates as a conversion kit provider for three-wheelers. The CEO confirmed that the kit is currently under testing with 30 fleet operators, after which it intends to go for retailing the kits.
Priced at INR 70,000, this kit includes a motor, controller, battery with an option to opt for a swappable battery, MCB, wiring harnesses, switch and digital meters. He confirmed that these kits do not require any welding and can be fitted within a few hours.
Rani claimed that the company has been empanelled by the Delhi government as an official retrofit kit provider two months ago. Besides, it also operates in Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as a kit provider.
Presently the company has a network of eight dealerships across India. In FY23, the CEO aims to expand this network to 300. With the expansion, he expects to sell about 25,000 conversion kits within the same period.
“We are aggressively looking for partners and dealers and distributors for each state so that we can share our technology and then they can take care of their conversion kit in their own states and districts,” he added.
Moreover, the company plans to set its foot in the international market, initially targeting the African and Ethiopian markets. “We should be present there in the next three to six months. By that time we should be able to deliver our first consignment there,” Rani added.
Production
The company currently has a manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, making low-speed e3Ws. In the future, the company aims to move to a new facility with a higher capacity to cater to the expected demand.
Rani noted that the company is in talks with people who have the infrastructure and would like to become partners with them. With this new facility, the company aims to achieve a maximum production capacity of 300 vehicles per day; however, it aims initially to manufacture 50 units a day.
Besides, Zero21 also intends to enter into contract manufacturing to cater to the demand of the northern and the eastern part of the country and further reduce the logistics cost which would otherwise incur if operating from the Hyderabad plant.
The technology, certification, design, sourcing of the material, including the motor and controller and the battery packs, will be the company, while the assembling will be done at the contract manufacturing facility. This will help the company cater to all parts of the country, he added.
The CEO confirmed that the company is looking to dilute any equity and then add partners to achieve all this. “What we want is a team who can also join us along with the funds so that we can take this organisation to the next level,” the founder concluded.