ANAND Group and Mando Corporation have formed a new joint venture company to capitalise on the emerging opportunity in two and three-wheeler powertrain electrification. In an exclusive interaction with Sunil Kaul, Group President and Chief Technology Officer, Anand Group, Rajesh Rajgor finds out the scope and focus of the JV in India
ANAND Group and Mando Corporation have decided to establish their second joint venture in India, ANAND Mando eMobility Private Limited, to manufacture and market electric vehicle (EV) components and systems for two and three-wheeler applications, leveraging existing synergies, respective capabilities, and their vast experience in the automotive component industry. The new joint venture company will provide a technologically advanced product in the form of hub motor, central motor, and controllers. Elaborating on the JV, Sunil Kaul, Group President and Chief Technology Officer, Anand Group, says: “There is huge scope and potential for motors and controllers for two-wheelers and three wheelers both passenger and cargo and we decided to tap this emerging market segment.”
“In order to understand the right requirements, we collaborate with OEMs and are working with two customers already along with three more customers in the pipeline in the two-wheeler segment,” he adds. The JV is setting up a factory in Rajasthan to take advantage of the available ecosystem and incentives. The company has 60,000 sq. ft. built up factory space ready with room for future growth. Over a three-year period, a capital investment of more than Rs 50 crore is planned to be deployed in the areas of product engineering and testing, as well as manufacturing equipment. “The new set-up in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, will be able to produce 15,000 units of motors and controllers per month from January 2022. The work on product variants has begun and will cover ranges from 1 KW to 10 KW motors and above”, Kaul discloses.
ANAND Mando eMobility aims to reach revenue of Rs 500 crore by 2025. “By October 2021, the hub motor will be ready for launch for two leading two–wheeler EV original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Later, the product line will continue with the manufacturing of central and mid-drive motor in mid-2022, followed by a slew of variants. We hope that we would acquire a 30-35% market share in the motor and controller segment by 2025,” shares Kaul.
Engineering Capability
Using Mando’s engineering capabilities, the new company will deliver a technologically enhanced product. The ANAND Group will have a 60% stake in the JV with Mando Corporation having a 40% stake. “Mando has great experience in controllers and motors with fantastic technology. In fact, we will have a Chief Technology Officer too from Mando Korea in our team with us. We will have an engineering centre in Gurgaon and apart from the technology know-how all the components for the motors and controllers have been developed in India. Our motors will go through rigorous testing in terms of performance, dust, water and heat, thermal management. For the testing process we have installed four dynamometers at our facility and the components will go into production only after we get successful and satisfactory results on the components’ reliability and durability,” elaborates Kaul.
“In less than nine months we went from proof of concept at Mando Korea to product launch in India, covering the phases of design, development, validation, manufacturing factory setup and production start-up. The pursuit of excellence has been central to the journey from concept to start of production, resulting in the establishment of a world-class manufacturing facility,” reiterates Kaul. Ask him about the extension of these components and facilities for electric buses and exports and Kaul states: “At the moment we cannot comment on exports as our focus is on developing components for the Indian market, which itself is a big market. Extending the existing facilities for e-buses or any other four-wheeler segment is not our emphasis as of today. If we see enough merit we might go for a new entity but our goal at the moment is focusing on the two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments and to acquire more customers and expand our product base.”
ANAND Mando eMobility’s primary focus is to address the varied and complex Indian driving conditions by catering to vehicles ranging from low-speed scooters to high-speed motorbikes, and from passenger carrying auto rickshaws to load carrying three-wheelers. It will concentrate on producing a strong, dependable, and efficient powertrain in the form of a matched pair of motors and controllers for the two and three-wheeler market.