Bike-rental start-up Bounce has signed a deal with Chara, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech start-up that has developed motor technology, which is rare-earth-free and cost-effective to build.
The partnership will lead to locally produced electric motors for its owned fleet of EVs. In addition, it will see Chara design and manufacture customised motors for Bounce based on its motor and drive technologies, the company said in a press release.
The motors custom-designed by Chara for Bounce will be locally manufactured and deployed in Bounce’s fleet at the beginning of next year.
This development is a part of Bounce’s strategy to develop its owned fleet of EVs deployed for its mobility solutions. With the localisation of the core component of the electric vehicle, Bounce will save a sizeable amount on imports; currently, motors and its associated controllers are now imported in all EVs deployed in India.
Vivekananda H R, Co-Founder, Bounce, said, “We are excited to be partnering with Chara to source locally produced rare earth magnet free electric motors, which will go a long way in maintaining cost efficiencies while making India independent of the global supply of rare earth materials.
The world is finally moving away from a hydro-carbon based (Petrol, Diesel, Natural Gas, etc.) economy to an electron (batteries, FCV, etc.) based economy.
This has led to, amongst many other things, greater dependence on rare earth for building its motors, batteries and electronics. However, rare-earth minerals come with their own challenges, the company said.
The ore availability is concentrated in a few regions. In addition, growing demand saw the price double over the last few quarters, and geopolitical risks could only make things worse. All these factors could lead to an unstable supply chain resulting in supply bottlenecks and increased price volatility.
Chara’s motors come with various advantages. Decoupling from rare-earth magnets, its motors are made with more than 100% locally sourced, sustainable raw materials, reducing the motor cost by up to 40%.
Bhaktha Keshavachar, Founder and CEO, Chara, said it is necessary to invest in deep tech to build technologies that can help the company move towards sustainability in the long term and also help as a country to play a more significant role in the electric transformation than to just remain as consumers.