1. Exicom set to become the country’s first listed EV charging company.
Exicom Tele-Systems is on its way to become India’s 1st listed EV charging solutions company. According to reports, Exicom may go public very soon and the company is looking at a post-listing market cap of Rs 1750 crore. Exicom operates in two business areas: EV Charging Solutions and Critical Power Solutions. The company manufactures AC & DC EV chargers for homes, apartments & public charging stations. The other business vertical, critical power solutions, involves manufacturing power systems, controllers, rectifiers & power backup solutions via LFP batteries for telecom operators. The company has 3 manufacturing facilities in India, one in Solan (Himachal Pradesh) and two in Gurugram (Haryana). Exicom has recently expanded its operations in Southeast Asia as well with its EV chargers being installed in Thailand & Malaysia.
Exicom provides EV charging solutions to Hyundai India, Kia, Audi, Jio-BP, BluSmart, Fortum and Ashok Leyland.
2. Hindustan Petroleum to partner with Ultraviolette Automotive to set-up EV charging network.
Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL) will team up with electric motorcycle company Ultraviolette Automotive, to set-up an EV charging network along highways, starting from southern India. This was announced at the recently concluded Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2024.
Bengaluru-based Ultraviolette launched its 1st electric motorcycle, Ultraviolette F77, in November 2022. Now, the company is working to introduce its 2nd offering, the F99.
In April 2023, HPCL had awarded a tender to Statiq for the installation of 500 EV chargers at its petrol pumps across multiple states.
3. Recent announcements by Ola Electric.
Ola Electric Founder Bhavish Aggarwal recently made a few important announcements. Ola is planning to expand its EV charging network by ten times. At present, the company has 1000 fast-charging points throughout the country. It aims to take the number to 10,000 by April 2024.
Apart from the charging stations, Ola Electric also announced expansion of its service network from 400 to 600 centres by April 2024.
4. EV startup River wraps up successful funding round.
Bengaluru-based electric vehicle startup River has raised $40 million in a Series B funding round led by Yamaha. The funding round also saw participation from existing investors including the Al-Futtaim Group, Lowercarbon Capital, Toyota Ventures & Maniv Mobility. The funds will be used to expand River's sales & service network across the country and for future product R&D.
The startup was founded in 2021 and launched its 1st product, the Indie electric scooter in October 2023. The Indie was designed at the company's R&D centre in Bengaluru and manufactured at its Hoskote factory. River opened its 1st store in January this year in Bengaluru.
The River Indie features a 4 kWh battery which gives a range of 120 km. The scooter offers an impressive storage space of 55 litres (43 litre under-seat storage + 12 litre glovebox).
5. MG announces price cuts across its portfolio.
MG India has announced massive price cuts across its entire portfolio (including EVs). The company has slashed the price of the Comet EV considerably. The entry-level ‘Pace’ variant now starts from Rs 6.99 lakh (after a price cut of Rs 99,000). The other two variants, ‘Play’ & ‘Push’, get discounts of Rs 1.4 lakh each and are now priced at Rs 7.88 lakh & Rs 8.58 lakh respectively. All three Comet variants are now priced lower than the Tata Tiago EV, which is priced at Rs 8.69 lakh (base variant).
Apart from the Comet EV hatchback, MG has also reduced prices of its electric SUV, the ZS EV. The company has introduced a new entry-level variant of the MG ZS EV. The new variant, ZS EV Executive, is priced at Rs 18.98 lakh (after a price cut of Rs 3.90 lakh on the previous entry-level variant). Now the electric SUV comes in 4 variants: Executive, Excite, Exclusive & Exclusive Pro. However, the automaker has made no changes with respect to battery and performance.
For complete EV charging solutions, explore the Kazam website.
