Bicycles get charged up

  • | Wednesday | 20th December, 2017

But unless the government comes forward to promote energy management, electric mobility will not take off in India," he says. When S Manikandan was priming his foray into electric vehicles (EVs), he decided to tap an unusual source for funding his venture. "After seeing the success of crowdfunding, we knew that it (electric vehicles) has a potential and future," he says with a smile. "Since there were not many in this category (of vehicles), we decided to diversify," Manikandan says.But why is Spero making these vehicles in Coimbatore? The Centre's plan to amend the 'Electricity Act' to allow private investors to set up charging stations for electric vehicles has given him hope.

When S Manikandan was priming his foray into electric vehicles (EVs), he decided to tap an unusual source for funding his venture. He raised Rs 76 lakh through crowdfunding by getting about 680 persons to back his idea in 2016, which became the main source for setting up his Spero Mobility and Energy Solutions."After seeing the success of crowdfunding, we knew that it (electric vehicles) has a potential and future," he says with a smile. "We wanted to understand the consumer mindset. We would have spoken to or met around 20,000 people during the crowdfunding campaign spread over five months," he says.Within the crowded space of EVs, Manikandan is trying to differentiate his company by focusing on 'Pedlec (Pedal-Electric). Spero's vehicles double up as a bicycle and a moped. While pedalling, it runs like a bicycle but if one applies the throttle vehicle it turns into a moped that runs on lithium ion battery."We buy individual battery cells from Samsung, Panasonic and LG and integrate the battery pack here," Manikandan says. His interest in eco-friendly solutions is because of his association with Milltex Engineers, a company founded by his father A Shanmugasundaram, which makes jute mill machinery."Since I worked in an eco-friendly industry, I got to understand about climate change and the damage done by synthetic products," he says. "Since there were not many in this category (of vehicles), we decided to diversify," Manikandan says.But why is Spero making these vehicles in Coimbatore? "The talent pool here is good. Coimbatore is the hub for engineering products. There is no great difference between building machinery and an electric vehicle," he says.The company is working on building everything for the EVs in Coimbatore. It now imports motors from Japan and South Korea and the battery cells from China. "We may not import anything except the battery cells in the future," he says.Spero, which has the capacity to make 240 EVs a month, is now focusing on energy management solutions. Since it would be difficult to build the infrastructure for charging stations in the country, utilising idle power from households holds the future for electric vehicles, Manikandan says. The Centre's plan to amend the 'Electricity Act' to allow private investors to set up charging stations for electric vehicles has given him hope. Only electricity distribution companies can sell power in the country now."Electric mobility is the future. But unless the government comes forward to promote energy management, electric mobility will not take off in India," he says. Once the 'Electricity Act' is amended, Spero aims to set up charging stations and retail it to end users.

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