EKA Mobility to invest ₹1,000 crore in R&D, aims to fill 40,000-vehicle capacity by 2030
Pune-based electric commercial vehicle maker EKA Mobility plans to invest ₹1,000 crore in research and development over the next four to five years, as it expands manufacturing capacity and looks to grow its presence in India and abroad, founder and chairman Sudhir Mehta said.
The company on Friday inaugurated six new manufacturing plants across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, raising its annual production capacity to 40,000 vehicles. The expanded capacity is made up of 24,000 small commercial vehicles, 10,000 buses and 6,000 trucks.
The inauguration was attended by Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, among others.
“EKA aims to scale up sales to match this capacity by 2030,” Mr. Mehta told journalists.
EKA is a subsidiary of automotive components manufacturer Pinnacle Industries and has invested ₹3,500 crore in the business so far, he said. Japan’s Mitsui & Co and the Netherlands-based VDL Groep are its strategic partners.
The company currently operates in Zanzibar and Nepal, and aims to raise exports to 20-30% of total sales over the next few years. It is exploring further opportunities in African markets.
“We are looking at Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda and many African markets, basically, much of West and South Africa,” Mr. Mehta said.
EKA has an order book of more than 11,000 buses valued at $1.7 billion, with deployments across 14 States. It has also sold more than 1,500 electric small commercial vehicles for passenger mobility, last-mile delivery and goods transport across the country.
The company is a Champion OEM under the Centre’s Automotive Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which offers financial incentives to manufacturers for producing vehicles and components domestically, and has secured PLI certification across all its product platforms.
On policy support for the electric commercial vehicle industry, Mr. Mehta identified limited availability of finance as a key constraint to faster adoption and expansion.
“Finance is not available today to the extent it needs to be. We have made many suggestions, like make it priority sector or give some kind of subvention or a special scheme to support financing,” he said.
Access to affordable credit has been a recurring concern for operators looking to shift from diesel to electric commercial vehicles, since the upfront cost of an electric bus or truck is significantly higher than that of a conventional vehicle, even though running costs are lower.
The expansion comes as India’s electric commercial vehicle segment draws growing interest from manufacturers, backed by Central schemes aimed at localising production and reducing dependence on imported components. Capacity creation in buses and trucks, however, remains closely tied to the pace at which State transport undertakings and private fleet operators are able to fund fleet replacement.
EKA’s plans will be watched for how quickly the new plants move from installed capacity to actual production, and whether financing channels for buyers ease in the coming years.
The reporter was in Pune at the invitation of EKA Mobility.
