Pune: Amidst announcements in last couple of years by big players to set up electric vehicles (EV) manufacturing facilities in and around Pune, the automotive hub of India housing thousands of manufacturing and ancillary units, two Pune-based young entrepreneurs Rohan Kamble and Shashikant Kamble decided to chase their dream of launching their self-manufactured electric bikes, scooters, cars and commercial vehicles. The duo sets up a production facility in Faridabad in Delhi NCR region and this Pune EV startup Dexto Motors now has a fleet of 400 electric scooters and autorickshaws ready to be launched next week.
In the beginning…
After completing his engineering education in Belgaum, Rohan moved out of India to gain experience in electric vehicle design, development and technical research. After a short stint in Chengdu, the ‘happiest city in China’, and California in the United States of America, Rohan returned to India in 2018. That’s when while discussing the prospects of EV industry in India, with his relative and now co-founder Shashikant, the two decided to do this startup.
Says Rohan, “We both have a passion for cars since we were teens. Even though I understand technology, that is not enough to build a startup. Shashi is an expert in management and public relations and hence our unique experiences and love for cars brought us together to fulfil our dream.”
Shashi says, “We didn’t have any big name behind us nor did we come from any influential family. We realised that we need a strong team of mentors, advisors with us apart from financial support in order to be successful. To start with, we made a detailed project report and Rohan began to build the indigenous technology and designs for the vehicles.”
Surgical strike
The company was formed in March 2018 and operations started from next month itself. The founders got a shot in the arm when Lieutenant General Rajendra Nimbhorkar (retired), the mastermind of surgical strikes post-Uri terror attack, agreed to join the company as an advisor within a year after he retired from the service in June 2018. “My father was in the Indian Army. Lieutenant Nimbhorkar, engineer, grilled me for nearly three months,” recalls Rohan.
Along with Lieutenant Nimbhorkar, former chairman of the University Grants Commission Dr Sukhadeo Thorat; entrepreneur Kalpana Saroj; former chairperson of Maharashtra State Women’s Commission Vijaya Rahatkar; president of Maharashtra State Goods and Passenger Transport Association Baba Shinde, and diplomat correspondence, International Organisation for Diplomatic Relations (IODR), Malta, Raju Bhosale joined the advisory board for Dexto.
First charge
Shashi said, “We had researched the electric vehicle market and arrived at some conclusions. Broadly speaking, there is two-wheelers, passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles market and we found out that passenger vehicles segment is a huge market in size. Customers were looking for compact sedan type vehicles more. So, we decided to go ahead with passenger vehicles.”
“We had initially planned to design our vehicle which will give 300 kilometres in single charge with boot capacity of about 500 litres. Those days we had only a couple of competitors. We had focussed on our research, development and battery designs. The industry was new to us. Out of battery and motor, the two important components of any EV, our strength was our battery design,” Rohan said.
Pivot
Months into starting the EV car project, realisation dawned upon the founders that manufacturing a car is not easy. They decided to pivot and focussed on two-wheeler and three-wheeler segment. Meanwhile, the founders also had to decide to start their production facility in Pune or elsewhere.
Says Shashi, “Starting a production facility in Maharashtra would have costed us much more than the present one at Faridabad in Delhi NCR. Rohan had his network of friends who helped us set up this unit. However, we wish to shift this unit to Maharashtra in near future.”
“We shifted our focus on three-wheelers especially the passenger, loading and ‘tarkari’ rickshaw (auto vending cart). Since I have worked with several government departments earlier, I knew that there are different finance schemes by government for all sections of society. So, we also formed the Dexto Foundation early on to help our potential customers with finance-related issues,” he said.
Rohan and Shashi had built a team of 28 by then. Of these, nine were in the designing team. While they were figuring out and overcoming challenges, the coronavirus outbreak had started. The team utilised this period for finalising the designs and brainstorming business models which would be sustainable during the post-pandemic recovery.
Encouraging entrepreneurship
Dexto Foundation is working with 12 different corporations (mahamandals) of the state government. Explaining the concept, Shashi says, “We are providing end-to-end support to our three-wheeler e-rickshaw customers. Besides financing the three-wheeler vehicle, we will also help them secure various permissions required from local authorities to start the business at selected locations. When the customer buys the e-rickshaw from us, they will also be provided an electric bike, and 25 products to display on the cart. These products will be supplied by us on credit-basis. Our customer will also be provided with a mobile application to receive online orders from 4-kilometre radius area.”
Shashi said, “Microentrepreneurs do not have any facilities and initial support to start their businesses. Rentals are very high in city areas like Pune, whereas the volume of business, deposit and working capital required also varies accordingly. Maintaining daily cash flow is very important for such microentrepreneurs for their business development.”
“By providing established and essential products in the local market, like dairy products, cosmetics, vegetables, seasonal fruits etc, we will help and facilitate the business development of our customers. Brand and EV awareness will be achieved through this model besides creating microentrepreneurs,” Shashi says.
Felixia scooter
Apart from the tarkari three-wheeler, the startup has also come up with two-wheeler products, especially in the scooter segment. After the second wave of Covid outbreak, the team was preparing for the big launch. The scooter was ready for testing in November 2021. The founders claim that 80 per cent of the vehicle production is indigenous and only 20 per cent, in the motor component, some German-made parts are used.
Rohan said, “In most electric two-wheelers, the Battery Management System (BMS) used was China-origin. The BMS decides how much and how should the power supply be provided to different units of the vehicle. We have indigenously designed this BMS component and are in the process of applying India patent for it.”
“Besides BMS, Dexto’s uniqueness is the EMS component, also called as Energy Management System. The BMS is the heart while the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is the brain of the electric vehicle. ECU controls the throttle current rate and battery operations and BMS decides charging and discharging and power supply to other components of the vehicle. The battery provides stabilised and immediate power supply to drive the vehicle,” Rohan said.
Rohan says their target customer is the youth. “The company is also focussing on specific categories like e-commerce and logistic companies’ fleets. One good thing about any electric vehicle is that the chassis can be kept, but the body can be changed at just ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 additional cost. The user can experience and feel a ‘new vehicle’ every few years. We are also working on some bike designs and these high-end bikes will be launched within a year,” he said.
Charging stations
Shashi said, “We will be providing charging stations for all electric vehicle users. For this purpose, we are associating with several educational institutes, including universities. Entrepreneurs can also run a charging station at the cost of ₹4 lakh. The charging station would require a space of 4x4ft for one electric vehicle to get charged.”
“Our chargers can be used on the regular 5 or 10 ampere plugs. Customers need not worry about the different types of charging stations infrastructure or the interoperability and standardisation that would happen in the future,” he said.
Rohan adds, “Our battery architecture is such that high speed is supported. Battery being the future fuel, we have also thought about swappable systems. Our battery design is such that it is easy to carry and easy to charge. It is stored under the boot space and is very convenient to remove. We have provided over 15 litre boot space as of now which means it can accommodate a helmet besides the battery.”
“Interoperability is ultimately about the plug. The Government of India is trying to standardise it. If and when it happens in future, we will invite customers and offer basic wiring and socket changes free of cost,” he claims.
Dealerships
Dexto is appointing dealers in and outside Maharashtra. “We have already appointed five dealers in Goa under a mega dealership. Besides Goa, we have also appointed one dealer in Madhya Pradesh. Within Maharashtra, we have given dealership in Pune, Kolhapur, Latur and Nanded. In Pune, our first dealer was in Baner and second in Wanowrie. We have stock of 400 vehicles ready with us,” Shashi said.
How the model works?
•Cost of Dexto tarkari rickshaw and e-bike: ₹2.40 lakh
•Vehicle finance facilitation
•Ownership of both vehicles is with customer
•25 per cent subsidy by different corporations (based on customer profile)
•25 products will be displayed on the tarkari autorickshaw
•Products from Bharati Bazar (Pune), Shriram Bazar (Phaltan) will be provided on credit-basis
•Mobile application for receiving online orders from end-customers
•Promotion and branding of mobile application will be done by Dexto
•Order delivery in 4-kilometre radius area from the vendor location
For microentrepreneurs
• ₹1,000: Daily business expected from e-autorickshaw vendor
•50: Points identified in Pune to begin with Dexto model
•500: e-rickshaws planned for deployment
•20 per cent: Profit margin that vendor will earn
•10 per cent: fee charged by Dexto per transaction
Indigenous product
•Battery life – 7 years and 10 years (future variant)
•Full charge – 3 hours
•100 km run in single charge
•High speed – 70 to 100 kmph
•Low speed – 25 to 30 kmph
•Battery output depends and gets affected by Indian road conditions
•Digital meter display
•Price range (on road) – ₹90,500 for low speed and ₹1.02 lakh for high-speed variant
•Scooter launch on March 24, 2022 in Pune
•Certification as per Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR)
•Certified by Homologation and Testing centres under CMVR
Electric vehicles startups
•India – 970 (325 – DPIIT recognised)
•Maharashtra – 201 (72)
•Pune – 83 (29)
Pune EV Industry
•Bajaj Auto is investing ₹300 crore for manufacturing electric vehicles (EVs) at Akurdi in Pune. This unit will have annual production capacity of 5 lakh EVs.
•Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has set up an EV cell to promote electric vehicles in the city
•Hinjewadi, Pune railway station, Lohegaon airport, Swargate and Bhekrainagar coming up as public charging clusters for EVs
•According to RTO officials, Pune city has more than 10,000 electric vehicles while Pimpri-Chinchwad has more than 7,000
•PMC to set up 500 charging stations across the city in the next few years
•Pinnacle Industries is investing ₹2,000 crore to set up EV manufacturing units in Pune and Indore
Competitors
•Ola Electric
•Joy e-Bike
•Greaves Ampere
•EVTRIC Motors
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