Vellayan Subbiah, executive vice chairman of Tube Investments of India Ltd. Photo: Special Arrangement
TI Clean Mobility Pvt. Ltd. (TICMPL), a subsidiary of Tube Investments of India Ltd. (TII) will start rolling out its electric three wheeler and truck in March and tractor by July, said TII executive vice chairman Vellayan Subbiah.
“We will start manufacturing and put out the first set of products in March with our current plan and then start selling, increasing volumes April onwards,” Mr. Subbiah said during the Q3 analysts call.
According to him, the 55-tonne EV truck is expected to be completed during the March-April time frame.
“The EV tractor still needs full homologation, which means that sales will only happen in the July time frame. The delay is from what we had anticipated in the past,” he said.
During the Q2 analysts call, Mr. Subbiah had said that electric heavy commercial vehicle launch would happen in December and electric tractors either in the last quarter of FY23 or Q1 of FY24.
TI Clean Mobility managing director K.K. Paul said that the launch was delayed due to new battery safety standards announced by the Centre. “Besides, TICMPL also used the opportunity to do a lot more reliability tests and to ramp up suppliers volume and align it with quality and delivery standards,” he added.
“In the first phase, TICMPL will be unveiling the product in southern states commencing from March and steadily ramp it up,” he said. “It will be done state by state. Currently, the company has 42 distributors along with the service centres and by year-end it plans to have about 75,” Mr. Paul added.
Regarding indigenisation of electric three wheelers, Mr. Paul said that those were sufficiently indigenised, except for cells which have to be imported, while motor and controller would be procured locally.
“On the heavy commercial vehicle, there is a huge opportunity of indigenisation and we are working around those plans.”
Talking about the bicycle business, Mr. Vellayan said the bicycle industry continued to suffer from contraction in demand and the business managed its cost and operations well to remain profitable.
