CHENNAI: Electric two wheeler maker Okinawa Autotech is looking to raise fresh capital in order to finance its next phase of expansion. According to sources in the electric vehicle industry, the e-scooter maker – currently number 2 in the sales pecking order – is looking to sell stake and talks are at an advanced stage with potential investors.
When contacted, Jeetender Sharma, MD & founder, Okinawa Autotech said, “We are the only bootstrapped electric two-wheeler venture in India and now looking for financial investors to support our next phase of expansion. We are a profitable company and believe in creating value for all our stakeholders.”
Okinawa Autotech, he added, has “invested significant time and resources in developing our products and our 250,000 customers are the testament of this. Being the initial OEM to comply with the Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) 156 amendment 3 is a significant achievement that demonstrates our commitment to ensuring even greater battery safety for our customers.”
Okinawa finished FY2022-23 with sales of 94,626 units, up more than double the 46,452 units it sold in the year-ago fiscal. That’s just behind the Ola Electric tally of 1.5 lakh units. The company however has been hit by the fact that the government has stopped paying FAME-2 subsidies along with a host of other companies in the EV industry on localisation issues. With the government turning off the subsidy tap on localisation non-compliance, a number of players in the market are looking to raise capital or sell stake and this will lead to consolidation in the industry, said a source.
The electric vehicle industry apex body has been petitioning the government to relax the localisation rules and allow companies to claim the subsidy which is crucial to growing the market. In its latest petition, the Society of Electric Vehicle Manufacturers has said that the “total number of electric two wheelers sold under FAME II scheme between April 2019 and 2023 is listed at 9.6 lakh” but “4.5 lakh vehicles out of these have not been reimbursed the subsidy component till date, on one account or the other. That means that only around five lakh electric two wheelers have been funded under the FAME II scheme.”
The petition also stated that in “April 2022, the ministry of heavy industries started blocking subsidies progressively to 12 OEMs in the EV sector amid speculative allegations of non-compliance with norms that mandated a certain percentage of localisation for the parts used in the EVs”.
