Automobiles And Startups
Not a lot of people are crazy enough to go ahead and carve their mark on a saturated market – even the biggest of investors and conglomerates shudder at the thought of penetrating the automobile sector with a new brand that’s “going to change the face of the industry forever”. Automobiles have been here forever, so no one in their right mind would challenge the names that have been here forever. And yet, some do, and they do it so well, you forget they were ever just a small name in someone’s ambitious mind.
Your first thought when we speak of this would obviously direct towards America and the muscleheads of the past, but India isn’t lagging behind by much. In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the best automobile startups in India that are putting the rest of the world in the rear mirror.
Is The Automobile Industry Growing?
In today’s contemporary world, there are a lot of innovations that are being introduced every single day, which transform the whole industry and in the automotive industry, there is no exception. Even in the midst of a major silicon crisis, there seem to be little sprouts of innovation bubbling up all over the globe in the automobile sector.
For instance: electric vehicles – the concept has been there for a really long time now, with companies like Tesla but with the future of fossil fuels looking slim, electric vehicles are the ideal alternative for the world’s environment. And you also have self-driving vehicles, which are a game-changer as vehicles have been used for more than a hundred years but this feature alone will propel the industry light years ahead of what it used to be.
There are also concepts like shared vehicles or connected vehicles, and artificial intelligence and big data analytics and human-machine interface that don’t get the credit they deserve. The automobile industry is beaming with hope every single day, and we can’t be more curious as to what the industry will bring about in the coming years. India is one of the front runners in this game, being one of the largest consumers of automobiles in the world. Let’s take a look at some of the startups powering this change.
Automobile Startups in India
The Indian market has seen a lot of startups that have made an impact in the automobile industry in this day and age, throwing the balance of power away from heavyweights like Tata and Maruti. Statistics show that over the next 20 years, the fourth largest vehicle market is gonna take a seat on the throne and head the way for automobile manufacturers all over the world. Some of the startups leading this sea of change are:
Tork Motors
Tork was founded by Kapil Shelke and showcased its first product in the year of 2016 September which was claimed to be India’s first electric motorcycle. Later on, they went ahead to raise funds from major Indian auto industry players such as OLA, and recently they’ve joined hands with the chairman of Tata Group -. Ratan Tata.
Feedback on the company’s first electric motorcycle TX6 is groundbreaking in all respects since its release in July 2020. In the past, they have rolled out a prototype of Yamaha FZ with an electric motor but it failed to make a mark in the Indian market as people had no idea about the electric industry.
Okinawa
Okinawa is based in Gurugram and it is an Indian electric two-wheeler company that was founded in the year. The company was founded by Jeetender Sharma and Rupali Sharma. The company is said to be nothing but electric which means it’s 100% – meaning everything from manufacturing to production is electric, set up in Bhiwadi Rajasthan.
The main aim of the startup is to produce foldable lithium-ion powered scooters which were showcased as a prototype at the Auto Expo 2020. The company has sold more than a thousand electric scooters just after the lockdown was partially lifted.
Revolt Motors
The actual name of the company is Revolt IntelliCorp, but Revolt has become a household nickname. The company has scaled into every corner of the country, and fast because that’s how you beat the competition. It is an electric motorcycle manufacturing company that was founded by the co-founder of Micromax whose name is Rahul Sharma in the year of April 2019. The company has successfully set up a manufacturing facility in Maheshwar. They produce around 1.2 lakh units every year.
The bike has many unique factors that make it stand out from the saturated two-wheeler market – full LED lighting, Bluetooth connectivity, and a digital display with real-time bike diagnosis include some of them. There are also rumours of more powerful additions being added to their lineup, and we’re all in for the hype.
BattRE
The startup is focused on producing electric cycles as well as electric scooters such as EV or IoT in the lineup. The company is based in Maharashtra and Gujarat and was founded in the year June 2019. We have a client base of more than 50 dealers across 6 states in India. Devi Sankli launched an electric scooter named GPSie for 65000 INR. The newly launched vehicle has a unique feature to add such as the connected instrumentation of the keyless ignition and the anti-theft alarm with the USB charger.
Ather
This company is based in Bengaluru and was founded in the year 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain. Both of them are IIT Madras graduates who launched two electric scooters namely the 340 and 450. They also released an Ather Grid at the same time which is the electric charger infrastructure for the vehicle.
The company has successfully raised funds from companies such as Hero Motocorp or even Flipkart and there are also companies like Innoven Capital and American Hedge Fund and Venture Capital Investor Tiger Global who have invested in this. Given that this company sells at a higher price point with the range of 113000 INR as its starting price they have managed to easily gain popularity and bring success to the company in Bangalore.
OLA Electrics
It was founded by Bhavesh Agarwal in the year of 2017. The company is based in Bangalore and they have huge investors such as Pawan Munjal family trust and SoftBank group for Hyundai motors, Kia motors, Matrix partners India.
They have introduced OLA App Scooter, kinetics safar smart, Mahindra e20 Plus and goldstone byd electric buses up until now. The price of the electric ola vehicle that is going to be released at the end of 2021 has been expected to be around 1.5 lakh INR. It is the company that every competitor has to look out for in 2021.
Closing Thoughts
The Indian automotive industry is on the edge of another major change and the government is eager to shift India to an electric vehicle powerhouse. The traditional cars and bikes amount to an unhealthy sum, with internal combustion engines failing to uphold the pollution norms. This is encouraging more Indian startups to step up and gain the first mover’s advantage. This explains why they have gone so far ahead of the traditional auto manufacturers in terms of adaptability and scale. You simply cannot hope to grow too fast when you’re already large. We can’t wait to see what these underdogs bring to the table for India in the coming years.
