Noida-based IoT (Internet of Things) and telematics solutions provider Aeris Communications, which at present sees over 75% of its revenue originate from the domestic EV industry, primarily electric two- and three-wheeler OEMs as well as enterprise customers like last-mile delivery and logistics service providers, foresees rapid adoption of IoT and telematics in vehicles across categories over the next five years.
The company, which offers its customers a full-stack IoT solution, right from locally-assembled hardware to the platform, and data analytics suite, aims to ride the wave of accelerated demand, and become the largest IoT player in the country.
“The automotive sector’s journey of adopting IoT is a long haul as the gestation period for a new model is very high – in the range of 2-3 years. The IoT implementation journey is also in the range of 18-24 months. We expect to become the largest IoT player in India’s automotive segment in the next five years,” Sameer Mahapatra, Country Manager, India and SAARC, Aeris Communications, told Autocar Professional.
“While enterprise customers, including fleet operators, and logistics players, are presently the primary users of IoT, the IoT acceptance and its need is increasing at a very rapid pace. It is the core on which their business works. Therefore, IoT is quickly shifting from being a good-to-have to a must-have proposition for the fleet segment,” Mahapatra added.
Aeris Communications, which started localising its hardware around a year ago, is also supplying locally-assembled IoT devices to markets in the SAARC, Middle East, and Africa regions. “Around 90 percent of our hardware is getting assembled and made in India, and given the volumes we are driving, we are looking at making strategic partnerships with other large indigenous players for contract manufacturing. While the value will be driven from the platform services, we are creating an ecosystem to offer the hardware as well as the complete IoT stack to our customers,” he explained.
Outside of India, Aeris caters to Volkswagen, Renault, and Mitsubishi with its full-stack solutions for the IoT-enabled vehicles of these OEMs.
BULLISH ABOUT GROWTH IN 2024 AND BEYOND
The company registered a healthy growth of 50 percent in CY21-22, and is on track to post a robust performance in its revenue in CY23 as well, in line with the strong demand for EVs in India. EV sales in India hit a record 965,868 units in the first 8 months of CY23, with the electric two-wheeler segment registering a 54 percent YoY growth to clock 552,439 units. On the other hand, electric three-wheelers registered an even stronger 78 percent YoY growth to take the total sales tally to 356,837 units between January and August 2023.
While it is bullish about the market potential, Aeris Communications considers CY24 to be a decisive year for the EV industry when several mainstream players of the likes of TVS Motor Company are expected to intensify their product assault in the EV segment. “There will be a lot of consolidation leading to inorganic growth, and a lot of policy around standardisation of batteries would also mean immense action in the EV battery space as well. Therefore, we are going to see strong action in the EV space in CY2024, which is going to be very different from what we have seen so far,” Mahapatra confidently said.
DIVERSIFYING INTO NEWER BUSINESS AREAS
The company which says it has the right tools, security protocols, and firewalls in place to keep cybersecurity threats at bay, is now looking to grow its reach to other areas within the EV ecosystem. “IoT cuts across industry segments, and we have overtly invested in the EV ecosystem, as we wanted to have a pioneer’s position in that segment.
“We crave to have depth in that space. We are looking at a couple of newer segments, including bringing IoT in the charging infrastructure space to make it smarter, and bringing the customers, battery, and charging providers on the same platform. We are also looking at integrated cluster-based IoT solutions, which would go along with every vehicle,” said Mahapatra.
“We are also looking at fuel monitoring as a large area of play. Our aim is to become the IoT-SaaS company in India over the next two years, and predominantly be the go-to provider for the OEMs across vehicle categories. That is going to be our mainstay in the next 24 months,” he added.