Charging solutions provider Exicom Group is investing INR 100 crore in building a new electric vehicle (EV) charger facility in Hyderabad, Telangana. The new facility will be commissioned in under 18 months from now, said Priyank Agarwal, Vice President, Strategy & Business of the company.
“Unlike our present facility, where we focus both on telecommunications and EV chargers, this new facility will focus majorly on manufacturing EV chargers,” he told Mobility Outlook.
Last fiscal, the company sold over 43,000 EV chargers, which is 187% higher than the previous fiscal’s sales of 15,000 EV chargers. In addition to the increased adoption of EVs in India, this has been possible because of Exicom’s proactive approach towards the market and OEMs, Agarwal said.
Exicom’s existing facility in Gurugram, Haryana can manufacture 108,000 AC chargers and 2,400 DC chargers annually, while the Hyderabad facility will have capacity to produce 360,000 AC chargers, and 7,800 DC chargers annually. The Hyderabad facility will service both the Indian as well as export markets.
Gunning For Growth
Exicom counts as its customers OEMs such as Tata, MG, Hyundai, Audi, Kia, Mahindra, Mercedes, and others in the four-wheeler domain, and also sells chargers to electric bus manufacturers Ashok Leyland, JBM and Tata.
Agarwal is now keen to increase the company’s share in the electric two- and three-wheeler domains. “We are working with almost every OEM in the four-wheeler and commercial vehicles category. While we work with two- and three-wheeler OEMs, we would like to increase our share of EV chargers in these two segments,” he said.
The company now plans to launch its new set of EV chargers next month aimed at these two segments. Also on the cards is a smart mobile app that will help the end-consumers in gathering data and insights about vehicle charging.
Agarwal explained, “We are looking to enhance the consumer experience with the launch of the app. It will tell them a lot of things, including battery health, and the time needed to get fully charged.”
Encouraged by making charging of commercial EVs faster and better, the company also plans to unveil its “Future Portfolio of EV Chargers” in January next year. The move is also inspired by the fact that today one fast charger is shared by five electric buses, resulting in increased downtime. The company is looking to change that.
Looking For A Finance Partner
In a bid to increase its share in the EV chargers market, Exicom is also keen on participating with partners from the EV finance ecosystem. While it is already selling its chargers to several charge point operators, it is of the view that a finance partner can help in increasing EV adoption by enabling CPOs to deploy more chargers.
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“Lack of finance in the EV industry is a big constraint, and if we can solve that we can speed up the adoption of EVs across segments,” Agarwal said.
Creating Two Entities
The company had started manufacturing EV chargers as it had seen “a natural bond between telecom products and EV chargers”. For instance, rectifiers used in AC-DC converters in chargers and telecom products are the same, Agarwal said.
To drive business in a more streamlined manner, the company is now looking at splitting it into two separate entities. “We had started the process of splitting Exicom into two different companies last year – one focused on EV chargers, and the other on telecom products,” he said.
The company expects all legalities to be completed in a few months. And once Exicom Power, which will focus on EV chargers, is legally formed, it will also have the capability to raise funds independently, Agarwal signed off.
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