There are concerns like rising fuel prices, pollution, and global warming (one of the biggest challenges affecting the planet). These concerns have led not only people and governments but also companies and startups to increase their interest in electric vehicles.
The Indian electric vehicles market has seen many startups coming into the space. India’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Startups are leading the way to a Greener Future.
What are Electric Vehicles?
Challenges with Electric Vehicles :
EVs come with their own set of challenges –
- Battery : EVs run on Lithium-ion batteries, which are expensive as they are imported.
- Charging time.
- Limited range.
- Battery replacement cost.
- Poor charging infrastructure.
Nitin Gadkari, the minister of roads and highways for the Union, said that India has the potential to become a major centre for making electric vehicles in the next five years. He said the world is no longer interested in conducting business with China, which presents an excellent chance for the Indian economic sector.
Under the Make In India program, the production of e-cars and their related additives is anticipated to increase the percentage of production in India’s GDP by up to 25% by 2022. On the money side, using electric cars on a large scale is expected to save $60 billion on oil imports by 2030.
Top Companies & Investors investing in Electric Vehicle (EV) startups –
The Top Companies that are investing in Electric Vehicles (EV) are Tata Motors, Eicher Motors, TVS Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Greaves Cotton, Amara Raja Batteries, Exide Industries, Tata Power, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra.
Top Investors are Tiger Global Management, Kaalari Capital, 9Unicorns, Blume Ventures, Pawan Munjal, Baring Private Equity India, Bhavish Agarwal, Ankit Bhati, Faad, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Survam Partners, BP Ventures, Manish Bharti, Moglix, Inventus Capital Partners, QRG Investments & Holdings and more.
Top promising Electric Vehicles Startups in India are:
- Ather Energy
- Baaz Bikes
- Yulu
- Ola Electri
- BluSmart
- Battery Smart
- Simple Energy
- Evage
- Euler Motors
- Tork Motors
- 3EV
- Altigreen
- Revolt Motors
- Strom Motors
- Okinawa
1. Ather Energy
| Startup Name | Ather Energy |
| Legal Name | Ather Energy Private Limited |
| Founders | Tarun Mehta, Swapnil Jain |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Funding | $ 286.0 M, Series E |
| Investors | Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Hero MotoCorp, Tiger Global Management,NIIF Limited |
| No. Of Employees | 501 to 1000 |
| Contacts | partner@atherenergy.com |
| Head Office | Bangalore, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://atherenergy.com/ |
Ather Energy is an electric vehicle startup started in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, two engineering graduates straight out of college. It manufactures electric scooters and has also established one of the fastest electric vehicles charging infrastructure Ather Grid, which was built and designed in India.
Electric Vehicle – Ather 450, Ather 450 X (Electric Scooters) : Price 1.33 lakhs – ₹1.52 lakhs*
Features–
- Top Speed : 90 km/h
- Range : 116 km/Charge
- Full Charging : 5 Hours 30 Minutes
- LCD screen with Google maps, Music, Answer calls.
Its Series E funding round was from sovereign fund NIIF Limited and existing investor Hero MotoCorp, Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal, Ather Energy has raised a total of $286.8M in funding.
Ather Energy started operations at its brand-new production plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu; before, the facility was located in Whitefield, Bangalore.
2. Baaz Bikes
| Startup Name | Baaz Bikes |
| Legal Name | ElecTorq Technologies Pvt Ltd |
| Founders | Karan Singla, Abhijeet Saxena, Shubham Srivastava |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $ 2.3 M, Pre-Series A |
| Investors | Kalaari Capital, AdvantEdge, 9Unicorns, Sumant Sinha |
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | office@electorq.com |
| Head Office | New Delhi, Delhi, India |
| Official Website | https://electorq.com/ |
The motorsport enthusiasts and budding engineers were brought together by IIT Delhi’s automobile club — Axlr8r Formula Racing. In 2018, these engineers launched their first venture, ElecTorq Technologies (parent company).
Startup goal is to create an entire ecosystem, including a bike, battery swap stations, and software, to assist a gig worker (Called Baazigars) in starting their journey at the lowest possible cost. The gig workers can get access to electric scooters from company’s Vehicle Rental Partners.
According to its website, its tech stack consists of Baaz, Baaz Swap, Baazigar Platform, and Baaz VU.
3. Yulu
| Startup Name | Yulu |
| Legal Name | Yulu Bikes Pvt Ltd |
| Founders | Amit Gupta, RK Misra, Hemant Gupta, Naveen Dachuri |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Funding | $ 20.0 M, Round 4 |
| Investors |
Bajaj Auto Finance, Blume Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, 3one4capital, rocketship.vc
|
| No. Of Employees | 101 to 150 |
| Contacts | support@yulu.bike |
| Head Office | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://www.yulu.bike/ |
Bengaluru based Yulu is co-founded by a passionate team of serial entrepreneurs in 2017.
Yulu is India’s leading micro-mobility service provider, offering unique vehicles for daily commuting. Yulu began as a mission to eliminate traffic congestion in India and now offers the safest commute solution via a user-friendly mobile app to enable shared, solo, and sustainable commuting.
Vehicle :
- Yulu move – Rental electric bicycle.
Yulu Scooter 
Yulu Bicycle - Yulu miracle – Rental electric Scooter.
A Yulu ride can be enjoyed anywhere in the city (Yulu Zones). Yulu zones are located at all the appropriate locations (including metro stations, bus stands, office spaces, residential areas, corporate offices, etc) to make those first and last-miles smooth, affordable, and convenient!
Yulu began its operations in Delhi in collaboration with Delhi Metro and with tariffs starting from as low as Rs 10 for every 10 minutes.
4. Ola Electric
| Startup Name | Ola Electric |
| Legal Name | Ola Electric Mobility Private Limited |
| Founders | Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati, Sarmad Nazki |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Funding | $ 859.7.0 M |
| Investors |
Pawan Munjal, Tiger Global Management, SoftBank, Matrix Partners, Tata Sons, Hyundai Motor and More
|
| No. Of Employees | 101 to 250 |
| Contacts | support@olaelectric.com, 91 8068964071 |
| Head Office | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://olaelectric.com/ |
Founded in 2017 by Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola Electric is India’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer (EVs). Ola Electric Mobility is a Bangalore-based Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer. Ola Future Factory has a capacity of 10 million two-wheeler EVs per year and deploys over 3000 robots.
E-Vehicle –
- OLA Appscooter, Kinetics’ Safar smart, Mahindra’s E20 plus, and Goldstone BYD electric buses
Features-
- Top Speed : 95km/h
Ola Electric future Car - Range : 240 km/Charge
- Have IoT sensors, a GPS, and a SIM card
5. Blu Smart
| Startup Name | BluSmart |
| Legal Name | Blu-Smart Mobility Pvt. Ltd. |
| Founders | Anmol Singh Jaggi, Punit K Goyal, Rishabh Sood |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Funding | $ 42.0 M |
| Investors |
Mayfield Fund, Venture Catalysts, LetsVenture, Survam Partners, 9Unicorns, BP Ventures and More
|
| No. Of Employees | 61 to 100 |
| Contacts | media@blu-smart.com, 91 8007005005 |
| Head Office | Gurugram, Haryana, India |
| Official Website | https://blu-smart.com/ |
BluSmart is India’s first all-electric reliable and environment friendly cab service. BluSmart provides electric ride-hailing mobility services via its mobile app. It primarily provides urban customers with sustainable mobility solutions.
It has recently begun intercity EV services from Delhi NCR to Jaipur and Chandigarh. It has also expanded EV services at Delhi International Airport. It is currently looking to expand its EV charging hubs throughout the Delhi NCR and increase its fleet to over 5,000 vehicles.
In its Series A funding round, BluSmart raised $25 million in equity and debt financing. BP Ventures, Green Frontier Capital, Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, BlackSoil, and UCIC were among the investors in the round.
6. Battery Smart
| Startup Name | Battery Smart |
| Legal Name | Upgrid Solutions Private Limited |
| Founders | Pulkit Khurana, Siddharth Sikka |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Funding | $350.0K, SEED |
| Investors |
Faad, Baring Private Equity India, Blume Ventures, TradeCred, K Ganesh, Orios Venture, and More
|
| No. Of Employees | 11 to 20 |
| Contacts | hello@batterysmart.in, 8055300400 |
| Head Office | Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Official Website | https://www.batterysmart.in/ |
Launched in June 2020, Battery Smart is a Delhi-based Electric vehicle (EV) battery swapping startup. Battery Smart is India’s largest network of battery swapping stations for electric two and three wheelers. Customers can swap their electric vehicle batteries at Battery Smart’s Swap Stations.
Battery Smart, founded by IIT-Kanpur graduates Pulkit Khurana and Siddharth Sikka, is aiming for a $17 billion swapping market by 2025, with the goal of having a Swap Station in every one square kilometre of the Delhi-NCR region.
It has raised $25 million in a funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from Blume Ventures and Orios Ventures.
7. Simple Energy
| Startup Name | Simple Energy |
| Legal Name | Simple Energy Private Limited |
| Founders | Suhas Rajkumar, Shreshth Mishra |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $1.0M, SEED |
| Investors | Manish Bharti, Athiyas Group, Sattva Group, Raghunath Subramanian |
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | care@simpleenergy.in, 9686645189 |
| Head Office | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://www.simpleenergy.in/ |
Simple Energy, based in Bengaluru, was founded in August 2019. Simple Energy is a Research and development driven company on a mission to build the future of mobility that is electric and connected.
“We are working towards accelerating by making them more accessible, affordable, secure and comfortable.” said Suhas Rajkumar (Founder & CEO)
Electric Vehicle – Simple One (Electric Scooter) : Price 1.10-1.40 Lakh* (Approx).
Features :
- Top Speed : 105 km/h
- Range : 300 km/Charge
- Charging Time: 3.5 Hours.
- LED Lights, Alloy Wheels, Digital Meter.
Simple One is the company’s flagship e-scooter that aims to take the fight to the Ola S1, Ather 450X, and Bajaj Chetak.
The startup opened pre-orders for the Simple One electric scooter and now claims to have received 65000 pre-orders.
8. Evage
| Startup Name | EVage |
| Legal Name | EVage Ventures Pvt. Ltd. |
| Founders | Inderveer Singh, Pulkit Srivastava |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $28.0M, SEED |
| Investors | RedBlue Capital, Anand Shah, Varun Pahwa, Anmol Nayyar |
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | finance@evage.in |
| Head Office | Chandigarh, Punjab, India |
| Official Website | https://www.evage.in/ |
EVage is a Chandigarh based EV startup company. They are manufacturing EVs for last mile delivery with the best in class space, range and durability.
Evage in India is supplying EV trucks to major delivery fleets such as Amazon India’s Delivery Service Partner. It plans to supply electric commercial vehicles to the delivery fleets of logistics companies.
Electric Vehicle –
- Model.X – It is a powerful one-tonne truck designed for the commercial delivery vehicle mark.
Evage has raised $28 million in a seed funding round led by US-based venture capital firm RedBlue Capital.
9. Euler Motors
| Startup Name | Euler Motors |
| Legal Name | Euler Motors Private Limited |
| Founders | Saurav Kumar |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Funding | $33.1M, SERIES B |
| Investors |
Moglix, Inventus Capital Partners, QRG Investments & Holdings, Jetty Ventures, Blume Ventures, ADB Ventures
|
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | emscm@eulermotors.com, 011-45018656 |
| Head Office | New Delhi, Delhi, India |
| Official Website | https://www.eulermotors.com/ |
Euler Motors is a full-stack OEM that manufactures electric three and four-wheelers for intra-city goods transportation. It has partnered with LetsTransport to deploy 1,000 HiLoad EVs in the commercial 3-wheeler segment in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR and cover other cities across India.
It claims to have supplied over 250 three-wheeler electric vehicles to companies such as Ecom Express, BigBasket, and Udaan.
Electric Vehicle – HiLoad (Electric loading three wheeler) : Price 3.55 Lakh
Features
- Load Capacity : 688 kg
- Top Speed : 42 km/h
- Range : 151 km/Charge
- Battery: 12.4 kWh
- Hydraulic brakes & Shock absorber, Automatic transmission
Euler Motors received a $5 million Series B round from Moglix in April 2022. Previously, it raised $10 million as part of a Series B funding round led by QRG Holdings. ADB Ventures, Inventus Capital, and Blume Ventures all participated in the round.
10. Tork Motors
| Startup Name | Tork Motors |
| Legal Name | Tork Motors Pvt Ltd |
| Founders | Kapil Shelke |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Funding | $4.7M |
| Investors | Bhavish Aggarwal, Ratan Tata, Bharat Forge, Ankit Bhati |
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | emscm@eulermotors.com, 011-45018656 |
| Head Office | Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Official Website | https://booking.torkmotors.com/ |
Tork Motors is a Mumbai-based e-bike startup founded in 2016 by Kapil Shelke. Tork Motors is a high-performance electric vehicle and charging infrastructure manufacturing startup based out of Pune, India.
TORK Motors, backed by a successful racing background and years of groundbreaking research and development, launched India’s First Electric Motorcycle—’KRATOS‘, manufactured and assembled in India.
E-Vehicle
- KRATOS, TX01, TX02, TX03, TX04, TX05, T6X (2 Wheeler Bike)
Features :
- Top Speed : 100km/h
-
Range : 100 km/Charge
- Dashboard digital, GPS and TIROS, Bluetooth, Navigation
- Full Charge in 4 Hours.
“We are not a company which brings everything (from outside). We build everything – the motor, battery pack, frame – everything is built at Tork. So that actually took us a little more time than expected,” said Shelke ( Founder & CEO).
11. 3EV
| Startup Name | 3EV Industries |
| Legal Name | 3ev Industries Private Limited |
| Founders | Peter Hartmut Voelkner, Suman K. Mishra |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $2.0M, SEED |
| Investors | Credence Family Office |
| No. Of Employees | 41 to 60 |
| Contacts | info@3evi.com |
| Head Office | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://3evi.com/ |
3ev Industries was founded in 2019 as a result of decades of experience in off-grid clean energy technologies and global standards of sustainable business development.
3ev designs and builds micromobility solutions from the ground up. In each hyper-local community we serve, they provide end-to-end solutions, including professional services for passengers, small-parcel deliveries, and freight.
E-Vehicles
- Shakti 8C and Shakti 8 – Closed cargobox electric cargo vehicle.
- E30x and e30c – auto electric conversion kit.
- Vega 4 and Vega 8 – These are four and eight-seater passenger autos.
- Surya – Its a passenger auto.
3EV Industries raised $2 million in seed funding from a group of family offices, including Credence Family Office. Initially, the startup aligned with the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ ambitions.
12. Altigreen
| Startup Name | Altigreen |
| Legal Name | Altigreen Propulsion Labs Pvt Ltd |
| Founders | Amitabh Saran, Shalendra Gupta, Lasse Mocklegaard, John Bangura |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $39.8M, SERIES A |
| Investors | Reliance New Energy, Sixth Sense Ventures, Accurant International, Xponentia |
| No. Of Employees | 101 to 150 |
| Contacts | info@altigreen.com |
| Head Office | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India |
| Official Website | https://altigreen.com/ |
With a mission of accelerating carbon-free transport, Altigreen was founded in 2013. Altigreen is a pioneer in EV technology and Last-Mile Transportation solutions. The company built three-wheelers using 100 % indigenous technology while keeping Indian environmental and commercial conditions in mind.
Altigreen has partnered with Exponent Energy ( startup focused primarily on simplifying energy in the EV industry ) to make rapid charging a reality for eCVs on Indian roads.
E-Vehicle – Altigreen neEV (Cargo electric 3-wheelers vehicle) : 3.75 Lakh (Approx)
Features :
- Top Speed : 53 km/h
- Range : 150 km/Charge
- 11 kW-h, 8.25 kW Capacity Battery
12. Revolt Motors
| Startup Name | Revolt Motors |
| Legal Name | Revolt Intellicorp Pvt. Ltd |
| Founders | Rahul Sharma |
| Start Year | 2019 |
| Funding | $20.1M |
| Investors | RattanIndia Apna Solar |
| No. Of Employees | 61 to 100 |
| Contacts | contact@revoltmotors.com, 9873050505 |
| Head Office | Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Official Website | https://www.revoltmotors.com/ |
Revolt Intellicorp was founded by Rahul Sharma (Founder of Micromax Mobile ) in 2019. The startup also provides Revolt Switch Station app-based battery swapping stations where EV bike owners can exchange their batteries for a charged one. It has retail stores in multiple cities of India.
E-Vehicle – RV-400 (An Electric Street Bike) : Price 1.25 Lakh*
Features :
- Top Speed : 85 km/h
- Range : 150 km/Charge
- Full Charging : 4.5 Hours
- Digital : Dashboard, AI-enabled, Geo location, tracking.
- Can change the sound of the bike.
Revolt Motors is secured INR 150 Cr from RattanIndia Group to expand its operations.
14. Strom Motors
| Startup Name | Strom Motors |
| Legal Name | E14 Technologies Pvt Ltd |
| Founders | Pratik Gupta |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Funding | $681K, SEED |
| Investors | Indian Angel Network |
| No. Of Employees | 1 to 10 |
| Contacts | info@strommotors.com |
| Head Office | Mumbai, Maharashtra , India |
| Official Website | https://www.strommotors.com/ |
Mumbai based Strom Motors is the manufacturer of electric cars designed to create clean and smart mobility through sustainable automobile technology.
Strom provides one of the most efficient drive platforms available, as well as all necessary comfort and safety, making it a complete modern mobility solution.
Electric Vehicle – STROM-R3 (3 Wheeler Fully Air-conditioned Electric Hatchback Cars) : Price 4.5 Lakhs (Approx).
Features
- Sporty, peppy, nimble and enjoyable Cars.
- Seating Capacity : 2
- Top Speed : 80 km/h
- Range : 200 km/Charge
- Full Charging : 3 Hours
- Digital : Touchscreen, USB, Navigation
It is a good-looking , compact, cost effective electric car.
15. Okinawa
| Startup Name | Okinawa |
| Legal Name | Okinawa Autotech Pvt Ltd. |
| Founders | Jeetender Sharma, Rupali Sharma |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Funding | $1.59 M, SEED |
| Investors | Hindustan Media Ventures |
| No. Of Employees | 21 to 40 |
| Contacts | connectus@okinawascooters.com, 0124-4233197 |
| Head Office | Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Official Website | https://okinawascooters.com/ |
Okinawa Autotech is an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturing company founded in 2015 with the goal of creating two-wheelers that can propel the present into a sustainable future.
Electric Vehicle – Praise, Praise Pro IPraise+ (Electric Scooter) : Price 1 Lakh (Approx).
Scooter Features
- Top Speed : 58 km/h
- Range : 139 km/Charge
- Charging Time : 5 Hours
- Digital Meter, GPS, LED Headlight.
OKI-100 (Electric Bike) : Price 1.20 Lakh (Approx).
Bike Features
- Top Speed : 100 km/h
- Range : 150 km/Charge
- Charging Time : 2 Hours
- Digital Meter, GPS, LED Headlight.
Since its inception, it claims to have sold over 1 lakh EV scooters. It has two manufacturing plants in Rajasthan: one in Bhiwandi with a capacity of more than one lakh units and another in Alwar with a capacity of 0.5 million units.
Conclusion :
The future of the automotive sector is electric vehicles (EVs). It is predicted that the next decade will be the most important for electric vehicles in India’s future.
FAQ
1. What is the Future of Electric Vehicles In India
By 2030, India aims to become a 100 percent EV nation. If proper infrastructure is provided and if it becomes affordable and has access to every consumer group, the EV market might become one of the biggest industries in the country.
2. Why are electric cars expensive in India?
a). Batteries : batteries used in EVs alone form around 30% to 50% of the cost of EVs. These batteries are very expensive.
b). Low Demand : When the demand increases and EVs will be manufactured in high volumes, prices may fall.
3. Who is leading the Electric Vehicles sector in India?
Tata Motors.
4. Who is first EV manufacturer in India ?
Mahindra. Mahindra launched Mahindra Reva, its first EV as early as 2001.
5. Who is the largest manufacturer of lithium batteries in India?
Exide Industries.
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