Manesar-based electric vehicle startup Zen Mobility recently launched its first purpose-built cargo electric three-wheeler in India. In an interaction with TOI Auto, Namit Jain, CEO & Founder, Zen Mobility spoke about the EV, its ideation, business approach and much more.
Christened the ‘Micro Pod’, this EV is cross between a two-wheeler and a three-wheeler, with its load-carrying capacity enhanced by over 2.5 times than that of a conventional two-wheeler last-mile delivery vehicle.
Speaking about the idea behind the concept of a Micro Pod and the investment that has been made so far to aid the project from scratch, Jain said, “Last-mile delivery agents, especially the ones riding a two-wheeler, face a host of problems, including back strains, dealing with bad weather, and more. We identified the issue and wanted to solve it,”
“Fast forward to 2023, we have a production-ready product which has taken two-three years to build. We’ve invested about 20 crores in the overall project so far.”
With the growth of the EV ecosystem, the industry stakeholders are also focusing to expand the charging infrastructure, introducing convenient technologies such as fast charging and battery swapping.
However, Jain opined that “Battery swapping is not a very big priority because in our particular market, which is the last mile delivery segment, the daily commute is only 50 to 60 kilometers. So the requirement for range is already being fulfilled by the vehicles. So there is no need for fast charging or battery swapping.”
As per the company, all the components of the certified three-wheeler are sourced locally and thus, it qualifies for the FAMEII subsidies.
The Ministry of Heavy Industries recently reduced the FAMEII subsidies for two-wheelers, which led to instant price hikes. When asked what if the three-wheeler segment meets a similar fate, Jain said “FAME subsidy is only an added benefit or an added value for us and our vehicle concept. The Micro Pod as a product in the market does not have any impact from any kind of subsidy,”
“Since we are saving a lot of cost for our customers, they understand the value that the product is bringing with or without the subsidies. Subsidies are there today but they might not be there tomorrow. And we are very well aware of that and we bank on low cost of ownership and competitive pricing to tackle that,” he added.
The company has a healthy order book of over 10,000 units. It will initially cater to the B2B demands but is open to selling to individuals from next year onwards. With exports in their plans, the company says that it has been in touch with companies from Germany, Switzerland, and Netherlands for testing. Exports, however, might start after a year or two in the domestic business.
