Automotive manufacturer, Ashok Leyland, is reportedly pursuing an electric vehicle strategy involving partnerships with tech startups and huge investments in R&D. The strategy will go hand in hand with the company exercising fiscal discipline by reigning in CAPEX spending while redirecting and increasing its focus on its electric vehicle platforms for domestics as well as foreign markets.

“We are investing $1 billion purely on R&D, protos and pilots for our e-vehicle range. We are opting for tech tie-ups like the one with Israeli firm Phinergy which is a range extender to be used to extend the range of any buses. We’ve also tied up with Chetan Maini’s SUN Mobility for swappable battery technology. Both tie-ups are R&D driven. We are working with quite a few startups particularly in the electric tech, digital space,” said Vinod Dasari, MD, Ashok Leyland, as reported by the Times of India.

The company is hoping to bring in cutting edge tech startups in its push for the electric vehicle R&D. “We work with startups if they have the right technology but we have no plans to acquire any of them, said Dasari. “Internally we have created around two to three startups which are growing well and once they attain a certain size we will look at monetising them.

Recently, at the Auto Expo,  the company showcased its 9 metre electric bus equipped with a swappable battery called Circuit S and is aiming to productionise and expand the range soon. “We can make 10 metre and 12 metre buses, both AC and non-AC, both left hand drive and right hand drive,” said Dasari. “Our electric vehicle programme will run in parallel to our BS6 programme and we are looking to productionise our electric range in the next 3-6 months.” However, as of now the e-range is only buses. “We will consider other options later,” he added.

Although the company is focussing on the domestic market for its electric range , it is also looking at exports. “We already export 15-20% of our produce focusing on India-like markets and as India upgrades, the world is my market so why should I not export,” he said.”We should be able to extend (the electric range) substantially from local sales to exports,” he added.

Thus, the company expects to primarily focus its electric programme and with a negligible debt on its books, it plans to keep a tight leash on its expenses. “Right now, we’re at a negative net debt and we will continue to operate on a very tight working capital control and whatever we need for capex we will generate internally,” he said. “In FY18-19 for example, we will use de-bottlenecking, improved supply chain capacity to increase production to meet higher demand,” he added.

(Picture courtesy: carlogos.org)