• Greenfuel offers indigenous high-performance battery packs against traditional assembled ‘Made in China’ battery packs.
• The shift from BS-4 to BS-6 will create a greater market for CNG and other alternative fuels
• EVs will penetrate three and two-wheeler markets in India with commuters preferring personal vehicles against shared mobility

EV revolution has certainly gained traction in India for a cleaner environment and a better tomorrow. The transition from BS-4 regime to BS-6 regime announced recently is a major stride taken towards that goal. Still, there exists a huge gap between the international standard and what was being used in the Indian vehicle components in terms of quality, performance, and reliability because of a lack of awareness, education, and cost sensitiveness. 

It needs visionary entrepreneurs to bridge this gap with innovative solutions and Akshay Kashyap, founder of Greenfuel Energy Solutions, is one such who is facilitating India’s transition to cleaner energy for a revolutionary EV regime in India. Machine Maker spoke to Akshay on his vision, Greenfuel’s solutions and India’s EV roadmap.

Akshay Kashyap, a Mechanical Engineer from the Florida Institute of Technology formed Greenfuel Energy Solutions to provide high-quality energy components. With the first project for TATA Motors’ Marco Polo upcoming because of the commonwealth games, they provided a high-pressure fuel delivery system up to the engine, so everything except the tank and the engine were Greenfuel components.

13 different projects with TATA followed by VOLVO Eicher, Maruti Suzuki, Ashok Leyland and many more, Greenfuel is a debt-free company with a turnover of 85 crores in the year 2006 to 2018-19
 

The idea behind Greenfuel’s Battery Packs

Akshay stated that sustainable mobility has two major elements, first being electric mobility further divided into – battery technology and battery pack making, and the second one is Hydrogen as a fuel. “We formed a group and a team within Greenfuel, formed a battery division, started our own R&D, invested 7 crores in two years of R&D to come out with a product which we believe is right for the Indian market,” said Kashyap.

The intricate task of understanding the Indian market and its expectations made them come up with an ideology different from what every other manufacturer was doing. “We make our own technology, it’s not like we are bringing things from China and assembling it, as everybody else is doing. We do buy cells from abroad, as they are the building blocks of a battery pack, but the rest is designed by us and made by us in-house”, said Akshay.

BS4 to BS6 – Shift to Cleaner Environment

India recently witnessed a shift in the standard emission norms directly from BS-4 to BS-6 for cleaner fuel use for a cleaner environment. The bigger question, however, we face is what this new regime will bring in. Firstly, in small cars, diesel will no longer be a viable option, resulting in small car companies phasing out their diesel vehicles leaving us with natural gas as the only alternative to petrol, making an automatic inclination towards the CNG vehicles. People used to prefer diesel because of its lower cost of running. Since it will no longer be an option, people will concentrate their demand towards CNG in light of a cheaper daily commute in comparison with petrol. 

CNG being a cheaper option, I see a bigger market grabbing from the CNG option, in small vehicles Akshay Kashyap Founder, Greenfuel Energy Solutions

Secondly, what we might experience from this shift is a huge impact of the EVs on three-wheelers, followed by a higher penetration in this category. The shift will make the traditional fuel system more expensive, reducing the gap between ICE and electric vehicles, where the paid-up period on EVs becomes faster.

The transition towards BS-6 makes CNG and EV even more relevant than it was before. So, this shift is a very important step to bring what we call as alternative fuels to the mainstream.

EV in the Indian Market

With great technology comes huge acquisition costs and electric vehicle is no different. While sustainable mobility might demand the evolution of EV in India, the huge dependency on imports leaves the economy with no initial control. Akshay feels the Indian market will respond to EV depending on numerous factors. Primarily, EV in India will only be witnessed in the three-wheelers, followed by low-speed scooters as they are only 20% more expensive than an ICE scooter and finally in the medium speed and high-speed scooters. 

Greenfuel took up manufacturing battery packs for EVs commencing supply from last year with a small amount of sale yet their battery packs covered two million km in the Indian market

There is a prevalent leaning towards short-term suitability whereas Akshay explained, “Even if a product has a higher acquisition cost in its life cycle if it gives you the return then it is economically viable.” But for a product or a technology to survive what plays a key role is the nature of the market. Indian industries suffer from a low vision mentality where one would buy anything that comes cheap. “The unfortunate truth in the Indian market is that most of the customers opt for cheap goods and when they have a problem, they opt what I call the right product”, said Kashyap. 

So, the simplest thing to understand is that it’s not about being expensive but being right. The market has its parameters based on the safety of money than on performance. So, companies are selling cheap but low-performance products that might have huge cash flows but not constant flows. Kashyap believes, “The companies who are selling the cheapest and the lowest cost products will perish in the next three years, we have seen this cycle many times.”  

The short term thought process will result in an outburst of sale followed by inadequate performance decreasing the brand value in the longer run. 

Greenfuel’s ambition is very clear, we want to be the battery partners of choice for those kinds of companies who keep quality, reliability and safety at the center of their value system. They are not here for short term gains but they want this ecosystem to succeed and for it to succeed customers have to say that this vehicle has high reliability.   

When it comes to automobile battery the same theory applies that it might make up the 50% cost of the vehicle, but is almost 90-100 percent the brand value of the vehicle. ‘It’s like saying I buy a smartphone, with an inferior battery and it dries out every one hour, you are going to say it’s an inferior phone, even if it has the best features”, explained Kashyap. Therefore, a battery pack must be designed using the best principles of heat dissemination, thermal management, sophisticated electronics, and cell balancing. “We have used the best principles of design and come out with value-engineered products for India that is what Greenfuel has done differently. A product which is even accepted internationally”, asserted Kashyap. 

The Indian manufacturing industry is facing a China dominant production, where there are people who want to simply assemble Chinese products and sell it in the market or suppliers of the battery pack who will buy everything from China, assemble it and supply it without understanding the know-how of the technology used. It’s like sowing seeds without knowing the nature of the soil. A simple example is given by Kashyap, “In India it rains, our roads get waterlogged, in China, it doesn’t. So, here the battery goes away, the motor burns out. In China, there is no 45-degree ambient temperature. Lithium is not good with high temperatures plus at the charge rates and discharge rates the temperature rises even more.” It clearly explains how we are trying to fit something which is not suitable for the Indian roads into our commute system. 

Geopolitical Dependency for Raw Materials

Big companies lack motivation in regards to the manufacturing of indigenous cells for battery packs, making imports indispensable. But once the market enters the reliability segment and customers are more quality-driven, big companies will set up cell factories in India, and once they set up shops here there will be a global concern for raw materials like cobalt and lithium. Still, the raw materials for the cells will have to be imported, but making it a better bargain as the import of raw materials will estimate closely to only five percent of the country’s crude bill, providing a ninety-five percent reduction in the import bill. 

With the current geopolitical situations, 100% electrification cannot be expected but a combination of alternative fuels. With ongoing research on various alternative raw materials like aluminum, magnesium, manganese, lesser imports and lower crude dependency is expected in the near future

The world itself is trying to distance itself from cobalt as a raw material, which will make India less dependent on geopolitical regions for making of cells.

Tough on one side electrification of commute will be a major relief to the environment, its disposal at the manufacturing level will open doors for another environmental concern. The government has already been looking into ways of recycling lithium and other components. Recycling of contents will further reduce the requirement of imports. Hence, it might be a long wait to gain freedom from geopolitical crude dependency but is surely feasible. 

Hydrogen Fuel for Sustainable Mobility

Another aspect of achieving sustainable mobility is using hydrogen as a fuel, with a lot of ongoing research hydrogen fuel is expected to be beneficial for commercial vehicles for bigger distance and power. The difficult job is to make it available for use as a fuel. “If you see 2027 onwards there might be a high penetration of hydrogen fuel in the commercial vehicles”, stated Kashyap. What makes hydrogen a better option than any other alternative fuel is its indigenous nature, there is no requirement of a battery. All you need is a fuel cell and hydrogen fuel, its emission is steam making it completely suitable for the environment. Therefore, an automobile future with hydrogen fuel is what you call a better future.

COVID-19 Impact on Automobile Industry

While COVID-19 has left every industry in a state of paranoia, Kashyap had a different ratiocination for its impact on the automobile industry. “People will be averse to shared mobility; they would want to buy personal vehicles. People will choose cheaper commute options either-cheaper fuel and running cost or commute bikes like low-speed electric scooters”, said Kashyap. So, there is an expected demand recovery but it will not be a ‘V’ shaped recovery like in the West as there will be no disposable income in the hands of the people. Therefore, it will be ‘L’ shaped see-saw kind of recovery in India. 

Overcoming all this, Greenfuel stands with a product meticulously engineered to serve the Indian market correctly. Sustainable mobility is the one solution that can rescue the automobile industry from all its cons. While the greater battle to be won is changing the thought process of the Indian market, making reliability and quality a parameter over acquisition cost. Greenfuel is one of the largest in alternate fuel solution provider in India consisting of the 35 percent market share of CNG market, hydrogen cells and EV Battery pack and components. 

To know more please visit http://www.greenfuelenergy.in/