Atul Greentech, a subsidiary of Atul Auto, is driving the shift to electric mobility with in-house innovation across EVs, battery packs, and charging solutions. With a focus on technology over cost, they aim to scale rapidly in India’s booming electric three-wheeler market. Hear about the company’s journey from Managing Director, Mr. Divya Chandra.
Mubina Kapasi: The electric vehicle industry is one such that’s actually not worried about demand, but about supply and raw materials to keep up with that demand. Let’s get a clearer understanding of how things are on that front. For that, today on Small Cap Spotlight, I have with me Divya Chandra.
He’s the MD of Atul Greentech, a subsidiary of Atul Auto. The company manufactures last mile electric mobility components. Thank you Divya for joining us.
And I think to begin with, as we always ask all of our managements, please could you tell us what are the core products that Atul Greentech manufactures? There is EVs, there’s battery packs, there’s charging solutions. If you give us a complete picture of the entire EV infrastructure that you help provide and service.
Divya Chandra: Certainly, certainly.
So I’ll introduce you about Atul Greentech. Atul Greentech is a three-wheeler manufacturing company, particularly electric three-wheeler. The parent company is Atul Auto Limited, which have three decades of experience in manufacturing and selling electric regular three-wheelers, conventional three-wheelers in the country.
So coming to Atul Greentech, the idea here is to focus more into the tech part of the EV. As you know, technology is the core of everything. So is the case of electric vehicles.
So today in Atul Greentech, we, along with vehicles, we manufacture our own battery packs, lithium-ion battery packs, battery management system and telemetry. So these are all in-house products of Atul Greentech. Apart from this, the vehicles, which is already a principal business of the parent company that in that the EV particular vehicles are routed through Atul Greentech.
Mubina Kapasi: You know, Divya, the EV industry is one that’s kind of relatively new. I want to know what’s your own experience in the industry, in your career path? What’s it been like? Have you always been associated with the automobile space? How did it all begin for you that ended up with you being the MD now of Atul Greentech?
Divya Chandra: Yeah, sure. So my journey in this industry is, I would say, an automobile industry.
I’m working from past 10 years. Previously, it was more into the engine, IC engine side, where we were working on gasoline and CNG engines. Then from past almost eight years, I’m into the electric vehicle segment.
So I’ve worked with e-rickshaws, the development of L5 category three wheelers. I’ve worked on powertrains. I’ve worked on battery packs.
So yeah, it has been a wonderful journey because the industry, particularly the EV is at the evolution. So you get to learn and get to see so many things. And as you know, globally, it has been a big moment where you can see the vast chunk of automobiles are getting converted into electric vehicles.
And when we talk about India, that to three wheeler, three wheeler has always been a natural adoption, starting with e-rickshaw where, you know, they replaced the big part of pedal rickshaws in North India. Today, I think almost all are electric. And then now e-rickshaws have been the more developed version into L5.
And with this, what we understand that India is the only place that offers such natural adoption for three wheelers. Even without incentives, it is growing at a tremendous pace. And we expect that the conversion will go very fast for electric vehicles in three wheelers category.
So personally for me, it has been, you know, a big university. Every day is a new day. Every day you learn something, you explore something and being in a country like India, it is a land of opportunity.
So lot of opportunities for me every day to get into new things.
Mubina Kapasi: That’s interesting. Divya, now, of course, in the EV industry, there are a lot of component manufacturers and players that have come in to enable the entire infrastructure.
I’d like to understand from you that how do you differentiate your EV products and your infrastructure solutions from the other players in India’s three wheeler and last mile logistics industry and market?
Divya Chandra: Yeah, I mean, this is the most important question every company tries to answer, right? How different are you than the rest of the competition?
So our thought process is we always wanted to focus into the technology rather than the cost. Normally three wheeler is such a commodity or category where it is known as low cost solution or low cost mobility, because if you see, it is an indirect mode of transport and it caters a big population in terms of employment. And what we know today, apart from big metros and tier one cities, rest of India, the transportation is a big concern and that gap is fulfilled by three wheelers.
So to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the competition, we always focus on how the product can be better in terms of range, in terms of power, in terms of overloading and how we can bring down the total cost of ownership less instead of just bringing the price of the vehicle less. So that’s where we are walking. Just to give you an example, battery is a core part of the electric vehicle.
So first thing we have done, we have localized battery. So the battery pack is made by us. So this gives an edge because we know the product in case of troubleshooting, we can have more people giving the solutions.
We don’t have to depend on third party vendors or suppliers to provide solutions on a critical aspect of the vehicle. So that is one. Second, we try to adopt the new technology, whichever is coming.
So we have one fixed battery solution. We are also working with swappable solution. In the future, we are working with different charging solutions, be it fast charging or moderate fast charging.
So this is how we try to niche our products by bringing more and more new technology and trying to be different rather than just focusing on the low-cost solutions.
Mubina Kapasi: Could you tell us a bit about your own market share in the entire three-wheeler EV space and the components of it? What’s the competition like over there?
Divya Chandra: See, we have been selling the e-Rickshaws for almost 8-10 years. So e-Rickshaw is a different segment because it is not considered as a conventional vehicle and there is a lot of competition and it is a very huge market in numbers.
But if we talk about L5, L5 is a new market. We started in 2023, but the market from 23 to 25 has been the explosion. You see the numbers, they are double-digit growth numbers and the conversion is also happening from ICE vehicle to electric vehicle into double digits.
So to answer the market share, we are less than 2% of that market. But what we see as a potential because we just started in two years, we can see triple-digit growth in terms of percentage for other vehicles. Internationally, we just have seeded these vehicles.
We are the first company having the EU certification. So products are globally qualified for international markets. So we are trying to cater more into developed economies as well as developing economies with these products.
Mubina Kapasi: How much of your technology that you use in EVs is developed domestically or in-house and how much is something that you’ve outsourced?
Divya Chandra: In terms of values, you see a major part that is vehicle and the battery pack, that is in-house for us today. The other parts like wire harness and powertrain, that is source from the suppliers. Now talking about the localization, as the requirement of government is incentives, you need to have principal components local.
You can bring the child parts from other countries, but the final assembly testing, all those things have to happen in India. So principally, we are completely indigenous. You talk about vehicle or powertrain or battery, everything is made in India here.
And speaking about partnership, of course, there is that news that has come about of your own partnership with Amara Raja for battery.
Mubina Kapasi: So if you could tell us a bit about that.
Divya Chandra: Certainly. We have tied up with Amara Raja for our new project in that Amara Raja will provide us the LFP packs, Lithium Ion Phosphate packs, which will be manufactured by Amara Raja and we are going to use it for our 3D wheelers. And along with this, they are also working on chargers. So Amara Raja will help us in providing fast charging solutions for this battery packs.
And later, what we know that there would be cell manufacturing that is going to happen by Amara Raja. So in future, the cells which are used will also be made in India cells. And that would be, you know, one step towards the program of Bharat in our country.
So it will bring more localization element in the overall product. So if I have to break up the key constituents of Atul Greentech’s revenue, there’s, you know, there’s EVs, there’s so many other components.
Mubina Kapasi: If you could tell us a bit about how much of your revenue comes from each of these business segments or which is the biggest business fee?
Divya Chandra: Yeah, as we have our primary revenue is the vehicle today.
So a large part of revenue is by selling the vehicles. And as you know, the EVs are backed with very good warranty period. The ratio is very less, the number of components are very less.
If you consider all these factors, so at least for next, like first three years or first five years of the vehicle, the dominant revenue is towards, I mean, from the vehicle. It is not from the spare part. It is not like the ICE business where you have revenues from oil and from other spare parts, which are required for periodic maintenance.
So EV is a different ballgame put together when it comes to service and revenues. So it is predominantly more from vehicles. And with time, there would be evolution that you may have revenue stream from data that you get and from the customers, from the users, and that would be the added stream.
But at the moment, it is vehicles.
Mubina Kapasi: Are there any proprietary technologies or patents or something that may give you a bit of a competitive edge that you’ve developed and the patents that are in your name?
Divya Chandra: There are patents, but it’s not direct patents in our case, because these products are getting more familiar. And it is, there is nothing like, you know, certain USPs when it comes to the component at the component level.
So we have more USPs in terms of performance, but not in terms of patents, I would say.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay, that’s fair. I mean, the EV industry has been around for for some time now.
How resilient is your supply chain? Let’s talk about that now, because there are EV specific components like controllers, lithium ion cells, etc. that are not that easily available. And we have to get it from abroad as an Indian manufacturer.
So talk to us a bit about your supply chain.
Divya Chandra: That’s true. If you see EV ecosystem in India is still at the development stage.
Government is announcing PLI schemes, companies are investing into, you know, PCB, PCB developments, semiconductors. So this all things are coming, they are not readily available. You take cells, for example, lithium ion cells.
I think recently only the PLI approved companies have asked more time to execute their plans for manufacturing lithium ion cells. So the important part of the supply chain, that is cells and semiconductors, and some more precision components are still, I mean, as a country, we are dependent outside. So I think maybe in a couple of years, we’ll have more options to source this critical parts, which are made in India.
But at the moment, we have a dependency on other countries.
Mubina Kapasi: Tell us a bit about your long term plans when it comes to production capacity, production, expansion, etc.
Divya Chandra: I think one good part here is with EV that it is at the, you know, verge of explosion.
So the numbers what we see today, they are just the tip of the iceberg, because the conversion has not fully happened. And with especially the three wheeler, the kind of TCO what we get is unbeatable, there is no four wheeler, or even other small vehicle, which is closer in terms of TCO to three wheeler. And we see a lot many new applications coming up in India and outside India for electric three wheeler.
So if you talk about expansion, we think that in next two years, the entire industry will have roughly 50% of share into electric that that means your all ICE vehicle that is CNG, diesel, that will go 50% and remaining 50% will be completely electric. And with improvement in the charging infrastructure, with, you know, fast charging availability, we foresee that this numbers the market today is roughly around, I mean, close to 2 lakh vehicles, this would be, we expect that this would grow three times in next four to five years. So I would say sky’s the limit.
And being in India, where three wheeler is the, you know, primitive segment for transportation, because last mile mobility is still a big, big challenge everywhere. So three wheeler addresses both the points last mile mobility and last mile delivery. So I think that we need to expand in leaps and folds for coming years.
Mubina Kapasi: You know, in many ways, you’re also doing a social good here, right? The more EVs that are out on the road, perhaps the lesser the emissions, especially in cities, are there any sustainability metrics or something that you track perhaps clean kilometers driven or any energy efficiency driven improvements? Because many investors also look at the ESG factor when it comes to investing?
Divya Chandra: Not directly. I mean, as you know, under PME drive scheme, they do calculate this numbers. But these numbers are keep changing because more the kilometers, more would be your savings in terms of all this reduction in pollutants and NOx, SOx, CO2, whatever they try to capture.
But overall, what we know that this is purely the conversion in terms of fuel, when you say that if you sell more electric vehicles, you drive more electric vehicles, you would be saving more the other fuel, the conventional fuel.
Mubina Kapasi: Perfect. So you’re very optimistic about there being a demand explosion in India for electric vehicles.
You’ve not seen any sort of hiccups or hesitation when it comes to adoption of EVs by Indians?
Divya Chandra: I would say the adoption, particularly in three wheeler is not a challenge. It’s not like a car where you have to convince the user that there are benefits of using electric vehicles. So adoption is certainly not a challenge.
The challenge would be the developed ecosystem, supply chain. That is the real challenge. Because if tomorrow there is a change in policy and tariffs or some difficult times with some countries, this can seriously impact the overall supply chain of EVs.
And that could be the time where we will not have any indigenous domestic solutions readily available. And the other part is, I would say, the tech evolution, the kind of tech evolution we see in China or in Western power, that evolution is not seen in India. I’m saying more into the technology part, not into manufacturing.
But if we put these two factors, one, the developed ecosystem of supply chain, and second is the innovation in the high tech, high technology parts, this could be a real challenge for a country if something goes wrong with the government policy.
Mubina Kapasi: Do you think that there are any government policies or interventions that could perhaps help stabilize that entire EV ecosystem a bit more?
Divya Chandra: I think government has always tried to put this program into place. You know, under Made in India program, they introduced a lot many policies.
There are incentives under PLI schemes, there are demand degradation incentives. So the government is always trying to promote local manufacturing. I think just recently, after Mr. Trump came into power, we see some changes happening at the tariff level.
But before this, it was always, you know, through India policy where government wants everything to be made in India, since the market itself is very big. And the aim is to create jobs to bring that skill and to localize everything. So I think government will continue this kind of programs in near future.
There could be some small changes, but that cannot be permanent changes, it would be a temporary changes.
Mubina Kapasi: Okay, let’s talk about your strategic vision for Atul Greentech, let’s say over the next five to seven years in the EV space. And also I want to know how does it complement Atul Auto’s own roadmap?
Divya Chandra: Well, the roadmap is very clear.
What we know today that the three-wheeler industry is adopting quickly the electric vehicles compared to ICE because people are understanding the total cost of ownership is less, the maintenance is less. There is the, you know, the tech is evolved so much that you should, you can able to track the vehicle, you can see the performance. This brings a lot of transparency in overall operations, which I think customer and the companies are appreciating.
So as a roadmap for both the companies, the parent company is very clear that they are getting into the mass manufacturing of vehicles. And as Greentech, we are very keen to adopt all the newest technologies, which can bring difference, especially in the life of common man, where they can appreciate the difference of technology in real revenue. There should be either increase in the revenues or decrease in their maintenance time or the overall livelihood has to increase.
That’s what we aim for. And with this, of course, government is also happy because I’ll just give you an example. We have participated in certain programs called Pink Auto in Amritsar.
So where these are Pink Autos made for women, where women can earn their livelihood. And this, since it is electric, it is very easy for women to learn and drive these vehicles. Again, these are electric vehicles, so there is no pollution.
So government is also happy. We also participate into certain government programs for solid waste management, where of low to do garbage collection that happens with our electric vehicles. So this brings a lot of pollution down.
And then since they are electric, and then they are again charged with solar energy. So this brings even the benefits for government, their cost goes down. So I think that’s what we want to do.
We want to bring real change in people’s life with the technology.
Mubina Kapasi: Are there any new technologies or trends in the entire EV space that excites you the most that you’re looking forward to if you could give us viewers and possible future EV drivers a glimpse into what transportation could look like for us in the future?
Divya Chandra: I would say the future of transportation is truly inspiring. If you just ask me, I mean, as a layman, I would say the message for the viewer is that your commuting cost is going to be negligible in coming years.
And your acquisition cost is also going to be negligible. So it’s a very interesting equation where people have to understand that it is no more like you have to buy expensive vehicles and you have to pay extra costs for riding those expensive vehicles. The future is you’ll get best of the vehicles and you will pay a small penny for it.
It won’t be like the old days. So cost of commuting and cost of acquisition, both are going to decline in coming years.
Mubina Kapasi: This was a very interesting and insightful conversation into the entire electric vehicle world. Thank you so much for joining us. And thank you viewers for tuning in. This was SmallCap Spotlight.
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