Market Research & Analysis (Through Secondary Sources)

We start our analysis by summarizing the views of various stake holders who play a role in the electric
vehicle ecosystem.

Electric Vehicle Component Manufacturers

Few EV component manufacturers who are involved in the manufacture of chargers and controllers for
electric vehicles were interviewed. They are also working on developing specialized battery packs and
storage solutions based on the end usage of the vehicle. For instance they have separate battery
recommendations for passenger rickshaws and small load autos, cabs vs private cars etc.

They mentioned that today almost all the electrical modules, motors, controllers and batteries are
imported from China, while the structural components connected to the chassis such as steering, brakes,
suspension, air conditioning are generally sourced locally by the auto makers. The primary reason for this
is because there is an indigenous supply chain of conventional auto component makers who can supply
structural components for EV at competitive prices. On the other hand technical competency is lacking
among Indian manufacturers for production of Lithium ion batteries and other electronic and electrical
components in India. Chinese suppliers are at least 5 years ahead in technology, and offer products at a
predatory price. Further they are incentivised by the Chinese government with tax breaks and subsidies
on exports. Unless there is a huge demand, new entrants cannot achieve the economies of scale that
would be required to compete against the more established Chinese players. Further, there are no major
entry barriers on import and trading of these components, so it is cheaper to import from China than to
manufacture them in India. All these factors make it unattractive for the Indian auto component
manufacturers to invest in domestic manufacturing, when they can actually import goods at a reasonable
cost to meet the current market demand.

Take for instance the specific case of energy storage batteries used in EVs. The transition to EVs would
require a battery capacity of about 400 GWh (gigawatt hours) each year, which, as per research conducted
by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), is equivalent to increasing the current global EV
battery production by a factor of four, just to cater to the Indian EV market [6] [7]. Currently China is in
the lead position followed by the US with installed capacities of 125 GWh and 35 GWh respectively.
Germany is leading the EU nations and plans to have 34 GWh capacity by 2019. [8] Currently 100% of Li-
ion batteries are imported. It was for the first time in 2016 that Central Electrochemical Research Institute
(CECRI), Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, set up the first indigenous Li-ion fabrication facility that has applications
in defence, solar powered devices, railways and other high end usages. EVs will create a huge demand for
Li-ion batteries, and this is an ideal opportunity for the domestic auto component manufacturing industry
to transition into.
Manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, which are the primary source of energy used to propel electric
vehicles require critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, graphite and phosphate. The resource
endowment of the most critical component i.e. Lithium, is limited to only nine countries and 95% of
global lithium production comes from Argentina, Australia, Chile and China. The recent demand surge
in the electric mobility market has already resulted in a twofold increase in lithium prices from $4,390
per tonne (in 2013) to $9,100 per tonne currently. It is estimated that India would require about
40,000 tonnes of lithium to manufacture EV batteries in 2030, considerably higher than the current
annual global lithium production of 32,000 tonnes . To meet India’s demands amid a global surge in
electric vehicle demand, the entire mineral supply chain needs to be overhauled and expanded.
However, India has missed many such opportunities to be integrated in the global value chain in the
past. During the early waxing phase of solar PV and electronics industries, there was a lack of suitable
policy support by the government for solar cells and wafers and electronics manufacturing. This led
to an ever-increasing import bill for electronics products, currently the highest after oil and gold. The
annual EV battery market is expected to be around $30-55 billion and India cannot afford to fulfil the
demand solely through imports. Hence there is a need to formulate policies incentivising domestic
manufacturing companies to create a vibrant battery manufacturing, research and development
ecosystem, and mining companies to simultaneously invest in overseas lithium mining assets.
The same view was also reflected in a recent article published in Auto News magazine, by the
president of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), Mr. Rattan Kapur.
He expressed cautious optimism over the government’s plans to switch over from ICE vehicles to EV
by 2030. Unless government policies and regulations create a conducive environment, it would be
difficult for the component manufacturers to face the dual challenges of graduating from B-IV to B-
VI and gear up for supporting the electric mobility wave in India.
Component manufacturers also highlighted that lack of industrial standards was also compromising
public safety and leading to poorly built and unstable / unfit vehicles plying the

road. Last year, the GOI exempted E-rickshaws and E-carts from the regulatory process governing
other motor vehicles, thereby allowing them to ply on roads anywhere in the nation. Lack of
standards leads to poor construction quality and substandard vehicles which are cheap, but at the
same time is a safety hazard. According to a recent news article there were 380 deaths due to e-
rickshaws, with maximum 71 deaths reported from Telangana, followed by 66 in UP, 56 in Haryana,
47 in Maharashtra and 20 in Delhi.

Analysis of Dealers and Stakeholder Interviews

A total of 14 dealerships were interviewed. Major domestic and global two and four wheeler auto
makers like Suzuki, Mahindra, Tata, Nissan, Honda, Fiat, Mitsubishi, Bajaj, Volkswagen, Skoda, Volvo,
Renault and BSA were interviewed for our study.

EV awareness and market potential – Auto Dealership perspective

Most of the dealerships mentioned that there is very little awareness of EVs among consumers. Not
just consumers, there is also very little awareness among auto dealerships about the plans of their
respective auto makers about EVs. This overall poor market awareness results in very few inquiries
for EVs. Less than 5% of the total inquiries in a month are for EVs, and fewer still (~20% of the EV
inquiries) actually convert into orders. Despite the higher prices, margins on BEVs are lower than
conventional ICEVs or mild hybrids. This is partly because of the auto makers not being able to reach
economies of scale with low volumes, but also partly due to the complicated government subsidy
disbursement process. The subsidy is not directly passed on to the consumer by the government, but
the dealer needs to sell the vehicle at reduced price to the consumer at the time of sale, and then
needs to recover it from the government through an e-platform developed by the government. This
makes it convenient for the consumer and the government, but the time taken for recovery makes it
unpalatable for the dealership. All these put together demotivate the sales team and the dealerships
to pursue sale of XEVs. One of them mentioned that a lot of 2W dealerships had stopped offering
electric 2W after EV sales had dropped between 2013-2016.

After sale service and battery recycling

The dealerships were also not confident of providing the same level of after sale service to EV owners
as they would to ICEV owners. Components for EVs are mostly imported by auto makers, and the lead
times are very high. Also the EV technology is evolving rapidly and components change frequently.
So most of the local auto component re-sellers do not stock EV components, and it is also not possible
for auto service centers have to maintain local inventory of all the components. The service centers
make every effort to maintain minimum inventory of critical spares and problematic components.
Also there is a scarcity of trained staff to work on EVs and so not all service stations are capable of
repairing EVs. All these resource bottlenecks, cause delays in service of EVs and there have been
instances where customers had to wait for a couple of weeks to get their EVs repaired. Strangely, the
dealerships / service centers did not express any concern about future availability of skilled
servicemen or re-training of existing staff to work on EVs. They mentioned that by the time EVs
become prevalent, most of the service personnel will re-skill themselves through unorganized means.
They even drew parallels to service technicians at electrical and electronics gadget repair centers,
and computer and mobile repair shops that spawned in every nook and corner. These technicians
mostly do not have any formal training, but have learned troubleshooting of hi tech electronic
gadgets on the job.
One more problem that service centers mentioned is that most of the times residences of consumers do
not have proper earthing or adequate power supply at the parking lot to setup charging stations. So the
dealerships offer technical support and can even arrange for an electrician to setup the charging point,
but would charge additional for material and service. There was a mixed response from the dealerships
on whether or not automakers provide any assistance on recycling of used EV batteries. Most of the
dealerships mentioned that the automaker would provide assistance on replacing the battery upon end
of its service life, but they were not certain on recycling facilities for EV batteries. They expect the strong
battery recycling network that exists for conventional lead acid batteries would play an important role in
recycling of EV batteries as well.

Other stakeholder perspectives

For the stakeholder interviews, we approached auto component makers, electric vehicle manufacturers,
Indian Railways, Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, Hyderabad Metro Rail Corporation, Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, and Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT)
Department of the Telangana government. A total of 6 stake holders have been interviewed for this study.

The awareness of common man about any product or technology is primarily driven by his consumption
of the product. From that perspective, a common man is still not aware of EV’s as much as he would be
aware of the tradition IC engine vehicles or even latest mobile technologies. Even those who know
something about EVs have a very low level of understanding and all they think is that electric vehicles are
slow moving vehicles. But there is lot of curiosity among masses about the Electric vehicles and an
increasing awareness due to adoption of EVs in public transport by various cities and states. Even within
their respective organizations, only the persons / departments handling EV projects or activities are aware
about initiatives of the state government or municipality on EVs. The primary reason for this is because
this is a nascent area and there are very few projects or activities being pursued at present in this area.
So only designated government department that is responsible for EVs is aware of it. Once state level
policies for EVs are developed following the release of central government policies on EV, the roles and
responsibilities will become clear to the government machinery.

Considering the current technical advancements in EV space, long term savings for the users, increasing
environmental awareness among masses and GOI mandate to replace all traditional vehicles by 2030,
most of the stakeholders agreed that there is a huge potential for EVs. Government usually prefers a
bottom up approach for its programs to ensure outreach, scale up and create impact. Private vehicles
need to be incentivised first in order to create awareness among consumers and create a market pull. If
that is done, the government foresees 10-15% conversion in the first 3 years, which will reach 25-30% in
the first 5 years. After that the growth will be very steep and will reach 75-80% in the following 3 years.
Balance 20-25% will happen at slower pace over a period of time.

As to the main barriers to EV, most of the stakeholders agreed that cost, availability of charging
infrastructure and maturity of technology were the top three parameters.

Incentives, Infrastructure and Projects

Telangana State: Government is actively promoting the generation and use of renewable energy and see
it as an ideal starting point to improve air quality problem. It is also encouraging the vehicle aggregators
in expanding their base in the state to propagate shared mobility concept along with EV fleet introduction
to deal with vehicular pollution concerns. Various proposals for EV introduction in public transport are
also at advance stages of planning. The government has proposal to set up 4-5 charging under PPP and
will be operational by the end of 2017. More charging stations will be added on a periodic basis as the
demand grows. In addition Telangana state has already exempted EV’s from road tax and other incentives
are under advanced stages of consideration. Details will be shared at an appropriate time.

HMRL: Hyderabad city is facing severe traffic congestion and increased pollution levels. High emissions of
CO, CO2, SO2, NOX, TSPM, RSPM, etc. and deterioration of Air Quality Index is posing a major threat to
the health of denizens. Keeping in view of all these factors, Hyderabad Metro Rail is being built not as a
simple Metro, but an urban redesign & rejuvenation effort to transform Hyderabad into a people friendly
green city with good air quality and living standards. In this direction, HMRL is critically considering usage
of electrical vehicles as feeder services not only to provide seamless travel to the commuters, but also to
reduce carbon footprint. These vehicles will be specifically designed to be eco friendly, aesthetic and safe.
They will run on battery and will be zero air and sound pollution vehicles.

GHMC: Currently the municipality is not running any programs for EVs, but will be supporting other
departments. We are identifying government lands in prime areas for setting up charging stations, and
are discussing with urban planning and electricity board on the feasibility of high power charging stations.
We are pushing for converting cabs to CNG and other pollution free technologies. We are aware of
ongoing talks with Ola to convert conventional fleet vehicles to e-vehicles and launching them in
Hyderabad, and the pilot run that TSRTC is conducting.

TSRTC: TSRTC is currently running a pilot for 2 months on EV buses supplied by BYD, China. The bus has a
range of 250 km on full charge and consumes around 1kw/km. This translates to Rs 8/km running cost for
electric, compared to Rs 30/km for diesel. However, the capital costs for this bus are almost 4-5 times that
of a regular bus. We have submitted a proposal with Dept. of Heavy Industries (DHI) for allocating subsidy
for 100 E-buses. They have agreed to fund the project but are yet to disburse the funds. TSRTC will not be
able to foot the bill out of its budget. If the project gets underway, we are planning to operate these E-
buses in a PPP mode. Since TSRTC owns and operates its own workshops, we are also concerned about
lack of knowledge among our service staff. There is a urgent need to revise curriculum in ITI’s etc. so that
the students become more aware of electrical subjects in addition to the mechanical and automotive
engineering.

Indian Railways: IR is a central government undertaking and does not engage in any state projects. IR was
the first to pursue electrification in a big way and most of our locomotives are propelled by electricity. We
offer two charging stations at Secunderabad railway station for free, but have not seen a single consumer
use them so far. This is because there are no EV users and the few who use it, do not see a need to visit
railway station for charging their EVs. Our primary business is transportation of passengers and freight
and we prefer to focus our efforts on those. We will continue to evaluate meaningful ways to provide
support to our consumers / passengers in the future and take necessary steps.
Discerning the Stages involved in the organizational buying process
We are taking examples of two tenders floated by respective government bodies and on basis of the
floated tenders we will analyze the organizational buying process. Since this industry is in the Nascent
stage and majorly government bodies are taking a step to involve evBuses in their existing bus fleet, this
is actually a “New Task” buying situation

Problem Recognition

Transport sector contributes around 14% towards the global emissions of green house gases. Carbon
dioxide represents the largest proportion of basket of greenhouse gas emissions. During, the past three
decades, carbon dioxide emissions from transport have increased faster than those from all other sectors
and are projected to increase more rapidly in future. According to a report by World Economic Forum
and WHO out of world’s most polluted top 25 cities, unfortunately 15 of them are in India. So under the
vision of PM Narendra Modi to have 30% of the vehicles on the Indian roads to be electric by 2030
government bodies like EESL(Energy Efficiency Services Ltd) under National E-Mobility Programme and
State transport providers under FAME(Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles)
are becoming the early adopters to make contribution to reduce the pollution.
General Need Description

As provided by TSRTC

As provided by AICTSL(Atal Indore City Transport Services Limited)

Product Specification

As provided by TSRTC

As provided by AICTSL(Atal Indore City Transport Services Limited)

Apart from these minimum specifications AICTSL also provided specifications pertaining to:
 Bus Design: The full forward control urban Elelctric bus shall have right hand drive. Bus shall be
designed and manufactured in accordance with these specifications & ‘Code of Practice for Bus
Body Design and Approval’ (AIS 052) hereinafter referred to as the Bus Code, as applicable to
buses in India/CMVR rules/Madhya Pradesh motor vehicle rules whichever is superior. The bus
shall be designed to carry commuters in the urban/municipal area with ease of boarding and
alighting especially for ladies, senior citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The bus shall
be provided with the wheel chair disabled persons friendly access system.
 Power Train: Electric bus shall have adequate horse power to obtain desired performance With
respect to its adequacy of power, acceleration levels, etc. Bus should be able to operate efficiently
at ambient temperatures of approximately 0o to 50oC, humidity level from 5% to 100%, and
altitude levels of over 500 meters of Indore municipal areas, generally operating in the semi-arid
zone as prevailing in the above area.
 Air Conditioning: AC buses shall have AC unit as part of the fully built bus. Heating, ventilation
and air conditioning system is to be roof mounted. AC unit must maintain a temperature inside
the bus which shall be in the range of 20 degrees Celsius as a minimum and 28 degrees Celsius as
the maximum temperature permitted under continuous operation of vehicle for 16 hrs in a day
with doors closed and loaded etc. The relative humidity inside the bus shall be a max of 65% and
a minimum of 35%. Ducting for air conditioning shall be so placed such that there is even cooling
along the entire length and width of the bus interior. The noise levels of AC system shall be as
required under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR)/AIS/any other Indian standards, if any
and as applicable for the Indore region. In case of AC failure, proper air ventilation will be provided
along with additional cabin fans on each side of pillar on both sides of the bus and one fan in
driver's cabin. Windows: Sealed windows of Toughened glass of 4.8 to 5.3 mm thickness.
 Interiors, Colour Schemes, Paints: Should be easily washable with proper drainage and
adequately sealed to prevent ingress of dust, gases, water. All the structural members of the bus
shall be treated for corrosion prevention internally as well as externally and painted wherever
required. Polyurethane (PU) paint conforming to BIS: 13213‐1991 or latest/ international
standards as applicable shall be used for exteriors painting of the bus including interiors wherever
required. Colour shade shall match the shades as per BIS: 5‐1978 or latest. Details of paints used,
surface treatment & preparation, corrosion prevention treatment, base primer coatings, number
of paint coats to be applied etc shall be supplied. Exterior, interior colour schemes including floor
colour and logo/graphics shall be painted as directed by the AICTSL. Information, on the seats, for
their reservation for persons with disabilities, ladies, senior citizens, shall be marked as per the
details provided by the AICTSL.

 Warrantee/ Guarantee: The fully built bus shall be covered under Warranty for up to 600000 kms
or 5 years whichever is later from the date of starting the bus into operation after registration. All
the assemblies, sub‐assemblies, fitments, components would be covered under warranty period
as per the commitment of the bus manufacturer at the time of supply of the bus.
 Intelligent Transport Systems: Alphanumeric Dual Display Technology coloured LED based
electronic route display system of high intensity illumination with automatic brightness control
along with audio‐ video display system in English and Hindi shall be installed at the front and side
of bus
Supplier Search, Proposal Solicitation and Supplier Selection

The tenders floated by TSRTC and AICTSL are for the purpose of inviting interest of suppliers who can fulfill
the need of the clients. Nowadays most of the government organizations are taking help of e-procurement
portals like nprocure and eprocure to raise requests for EoIs(Expression of Interest), RFPs(Request for
Proposal) and tenders.

For Supplier selection there are different criteria some of them are mentioned in the RFP or tender itself,
if the supplier fulfills the criteria given in the document further the qualified suppliers are invited to
participate in the bidding process where the suppliers provide presentations which includes information
about their product, their features and price they will be charging for their offering. The client then asses
all the bidders and chooses a supplier who will be providing products/ services.

Criteria provided in tender in case of TSRTC

Price bid in case of TSRTC

In case of TSRTC Goldstone-BYD was the L1 bidder ( which quoted the lowest price) and subsequently won
the bid for a total of 100 buses.
Criteria provided in tender in case of AICTSL

Price bid in case of AICTSL

In case of AISCTL Tata Motors was the L1 bidder ( which quoted the lowest price) and subsequently won
the bid for a total of 40 buses.

Order Routine Specification

Apart from technical specfications delivery and warrantee terms are also included in Order routine
specifications.

Delivery and Warrantee Terms of TSRTC

Delivery and Warrantee Terms of AISCTL
Product

We basically used the LEAD USER method here which includes: Laying the foundation, Determining the
trends, Identifying Lead users, Developing and Assessing product ideas, Developing the breakthroughs

After studying this market and after analyzing the trends and the situation and what the different
Governement organizations like EESL, TSRTC which are lead users might expect out of the suppliers so we
developed a evBUS which might actually be a game changer.

First let’s consider all the problems that current EVs have

 The problem associated with Lithium Ion batteries and their cost. Even if companies produce Li-
ion batteries at a commercial scale to bring down the costs, the problem of increaisn the import
bill still persists.
 The current electric motors installed in the power train contain rare earth materials which are
very expensive and adds to the cost of the whole vehicle.
 Currently the Li-ion batteries used can give an average of 250 kms and takes approx. 3.5 to charge
which might reduce the operating time of the buses.

Our solution

 We have successfully developed a technology to effectively recycle Lithium from E-waste as well
as from used batteries.
 Instead of using a Electric motor with rare earth metals we will be using wound round motor with
copper windings so as to increase the torque in EVs as well as to reduce the cost.
 Now coming to the biggest problem to the question “How much km in a single charge”. We will
actually have 2 batteries installed in the bus along with a solar panel on the top of the bus which
will charge the ideal battery and when the charge of one battery finishes we can swap the
batteries which will take somewhere between 20-25 min and the bus will be operational again.
So effectively we have increased the no of kms run from 250 to somewhere around 450 and also
reducing the time to charge the battery.