In this interview by N. Balasubramanian, Dr. Karthik S. Ponnapula, Director, ETO Motors elaborates about the electric mobility scenario in India and also shares details about how the company’s products are boosting the adoption rate of EVs with the company’s well-developed vehicles that cater to last mile connectivity and offer comfort, safety and cost-efficiency
Could you brief us about why, when and how was ETO Motors founded? What is the purpose and vision of the company?
ETO was founded in 2018 by a seasoned team of professionals who had originally founded Olectra, which pioneered India’s first fully electric bus with their international partner BYD. As a natural progression, we saw the next large-scale opportunity in the electric mobility segment, specifically the last mile segment with the two and three-wheel cargo and passenger vehicles. ETO has since been a trendsetter in the electric revolution. We have created a comprehensive roadmap to establish a robust EV ecosystem by investing in next-generation technology solutions and globally competitive products to drive adoption of sustainable mobility. ETO aims to create and maintain successful and profitable relationships with vehicle owners and energy suppliers that would reduce the total cost of ownership of the EVs and accelerate their market penetration.
We operate under our 3E principle, which stands for environment, empowerment and employment. ETO as an organisation looks to positively impact the environment through mass adoption of EVs in the public transit and cargo segments while generating equitable employment. A wonderful example of this is one of our pilot projects at the Statue of Unity, where the government has mandated the area an ‘EV only’ zone. We are currently operating a fleet entirely run by women and we are very proud of having been one of the first in the country to offer such opportunities.
Could you elaborate about your product portfolio? How many different models do you have and are there any new segments you plan to cater to in the near future?
ETO broadly serves three specific areas. Primarily, ETO Fleet is one of India’s leading electric three-wheeler fleets serving a continuously growing list of clients with businesses such as Amazon, Big Basket, Flip Kart, Blue Dart, and Bisleri, to name a few. ETO Fleet helps automate, track and manage business’ last mile delivery needs through the use of our eco-friendly electric three-wheeler vehicles. ETO Motors is our manufacturing segment which produces our three-wheeler passenger and cargo vehicles. At ETO Motors, our product design approach has always been modular platform based, thus allowing us to spin off variants for different use cases.
Aside from the passenger vehicle, The Trilux, we also offer our cargo vehicle, the Bulke. Within the Bulke, we offer three different variants, Max, Space and Eco. To better serve our partners, these different variants offer benefits such as 750 kg payload and extended cargo box, and a more economical version that keeps costs low but still carries a 500 kg load. Our design approach gives us the flexibility to add accessories depending on the use case. An example is that of a refrigerated box for dairy or pharmaceutical product movements or a tipper version for construction use case or sanitation services.
Irrespective of the use case, our vehicles carry a futuristic design theme, which has not traditionally been seen in the 3W segment. We are continuously working with our research and development team to innovate and certainly aim to serve more segments in the next calendar year. At ETO, we have always looked at the EV ecosystem holistically. Integral to faster adoption of E2W and E3W is building a robust charging infrastructure. In this vertical, our EV charger, the Thunderbox, is currently being rolled out to many locations across major metros throughout India, thus making charging easily accessible to all the EV drivers of tomorrow.
How many units of your EVs have you sold till date? What type of applications are the vehicles deployed for and why does a customer choose ETO Motors for the same?
Our volumes have been steadily ramping up and today ETO has a very sizeable fleet of vehicles on the roads in India today. This is because of the variety of benefits that an ETO vehicle offers. First and foremost, the total cost of operation is significantly lower than that of a comparable combustion engine vehicle. Our range is also one of the longest on the EV three-wheeler market today. This has given our customers and driver partners the best in safety, comfort, and efficiency, which has been the feedback we have received.
Our fleet service, as mentioned earlier, offers a vehicle as one of our driver partners to enhance e-commerce businesses for all intra-city logistics operators. This allows our driver partner to make use of our charging network and our ‘Own Your ETO Scheme’ (OYES), which gives favourable financing options to allow them to outright own the vehicle they use after a certain period of service. This in combination with the business that ETO offers our driver partners is what has given us the edge in the market allowing us to scale at an exponential rate.
The electric three-wheeler space has sort of exploded with numerous players coming in over the last few years, which goes to show the kind of market potential in the segment. What do you think are the USPs of ETO Motors and why should customers consider you over others who offer similar products? Also, moving forward, do you think there is space for so many players or do you expect to see a kind of consolidation in the market?
First of all, our strong pedigree in the electric vehicle industry gives us an understanding of EV adoption in India very well and we have been pioneers in the space. This combined with our world class capability in research and development and manufacturing allows us to bring to market vehicles that are state-of-the-art modern looking and deeply focused on comfort, safety, and total cost of operation for our partners. Class-leading features in our vehicles include industry firsts such as bucket seats for the driver, seatbelts for the passengers, a rear-view camera and 2.7 metres wheelbase, making ETO three-wheelers the most stable in their class. The quality of an ETO vehicle is also held to the highest standard, including the reliability and build quality which we are constantly reviewing and improving upon.
We also continue to innovate and roll out better and more futuristic vehicles based on the market and our consumer outreach. All of this combined gives us the unique ETO USP that draws customers to choose us. Regarding other players in this market space, the way I see it, it is early days for EV adoption in India and the market opportunity is massive and consequently today everyone can have a role to play. At ETO we continue to build and grow our product portfolio to cater to new segments. It’s too early to say what may or may not happen with regards to consolidation in the market. However, more than likely, yes it will have to happen at some point down the line. The process and how exactly it will play out though remains a question and will be dependent on many different factors, which is why we are sticking to focusing on our segment of the market and performing where our strengths lie.
Could you elaborate about your JV with Quantron? What do you intend to do with this partnership and how will it be beneficial for the companies as well as the Indian market and the overseas markets? What are your medium to long-term plans as far as the partnership is concerned?
We are very excited to be able to announce the JV between ETO and our German partner Quantron. Quantron combines e-mobility know-how with 140 years of commercial vehicle experience. Firstly, this partnership has given ETO a foray into the European market by appointing Quantron as a sales and service partner for jointly developed ETO three-wheelers for ultra-last mile operations. While in India, ETO will assist and jointly develop assembly facilities for Quantron vehicles for the region. This cooperation is mutually beneficial as it allows both companies to expand their reach and offerings with the assistance of strong partners in their respective regions.
We can see this being a very long-lasting and fruitful partnership as the strengths that each side brings allows for even greater possibilities. We can see in the near term bringing each other’s products to our respective regions while assisting in production and assembly. We aim to introduce top-of-the-line products at competitive prices in the market both in Asia and Europe. Keep an eye on this as we will be announcing more exciting news in the near future!
Where do you make your products? Could you share details such as factory size, annual production capacity, current capacity utilisation, best manufacturing practices adopted, etc.?
We have 42,000 sq. metres world-class manufacturing facility in Hyderabad which is led by our head of production, Vikram Sinha, a former car plant head at Tata Motors. He has been instrumental in developing the facility into what it is today. We have adequate capacity installed to cater the current and near term future market requirements. As we scale our business up and the requirements of production continue to grow, we are embarking on enhancing our capacity with a calibrated approach to cater to a much enhanced EV market adoption in the medium to long term.
As part of our company’s ethos, we adhere to industry standards in safety at all our establishments be it our manufacturing assets or commercial offices. On the manufacturing and services side, we have industry leading processes and systems that ensure class-leading quality vehicles being assembled, efficient productivity being achieved and rendering high level of customer satisfaction. At ETO Motors we also have a variety of initiatives that have our employees’ wellbeing at the core of all objectives.
How do you make your products available across the vast geography of our country? Also, very importantly, how do you handle the service part which is very critical especially since these vehicles are deployed for commercial purposes where time is money? Could you also share details of how many sales outlets or partners and service touch-points the company has set up?
ETO already has a presence in many major metros in India, including Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. We are currently building our dealer network and are focusing primarily right now on servicing the need in our logistics services’ business. The demand of vehicles from there alone has kept us occupied, but has given us a lot of valuable information on the performance of the vehicles and how best to improve on them while continuing to expand in the direct consumer sales market. This volume that we are currently serving has also given us a great basis upon which we are building our service network across the country. We want our vehicles to be able to be the most reliable in the industry while also being accessible to quick service.
As I mentioned earlier, ETO is wholly committed to further the adoption of EVs in India and looks to build the entire ecosystem which includes servicing. Currently, we have service touch-points in all major metros where the larger quantum of vehicles are currently operating and are rapidly expanding that reach to allow for ease in getting to a service station. We also train our service partners in the maintenance of our vehicles and continue to reassess our technicians to ensure that the best possible service is given to our customers.
Where do you see ETO Motors going from here? What are your medium to long-term plans for the company and what position are you targeting in terms of sales, market position, market reach, etc. by the end of the decade i.e. 2030?
ETO as a company has a long-term view and looks to play a significant role in enhancing the adoption of electric vehicles in India and around the world. We want to ensure that the mobility of tomorrow is sustainable and thus we are targeting the public transit and cargo segments where we see our impact being the largest. ETO also wants the transition to sustainable mobility to be commercially viable for consumers and businesses alike.
We do aim to be industry leaders when it comes to our product portfolio and the customer base that we serve. That coupled with our long-term vision means that we would like to have a significant market reach not only in India but make an impact in the last mile mobility segment in other markets around the world as well. This is leading us into the future in which we see ETO as a major player in the EV last mile mobility segment and going on to leading the EV revolution with new and innovative solutions.