By : RACHNA TYAGI
MUMBAI :
Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Vice Chairperson, Kinetic Engineering and Founder & CEO, Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions Limited, who grew up counting Lunas and Kinetic Hondas on the road, is a determined woman and she is on a mission. With a super sharp focus of her light mobility company’s aim to build small electric vehicles with 1kW-10kW motor size and speeds of 25-100kmph, electric two wheelers, three wheelers and golf carts are segments that the company is working on. No greenhorn when it comes to stylish, advanced and affordable scooters, she is keen on making electric mobility reach masses because “that is what Kinetic is good at – taking new technology and making it available and affordable to people at large.” At the launch of Kinetic Green’s electric scooter, Zulu, TURN OF SPEED caught up with her where she spoke to us about adding to Kinetic’s legacy in the e-avatar, their modular platform as well as their new dealership formats. Excerpts from the interview….
TOS: You have been in the automotive business from the 1980’s. Give us a sense of how you have seen the business of two wheelers change in India as well as abroad over the decades and where is it headed?
SFM: As a nation develops and urbanizes, people’s transportation choices change. From a poor nation where very smallish mopeds were used to seeing people move to motorcycles as the country progressed… due to their ability to travel on bad roads and offer more mileage… to then seeing cities get urbanized, where people moved to scooters. In cities, scooters make more sense as not only can everybody in the family ride them but also because you save yourself from the hassle of changing gears. A scooter like Kinetic is so much more convenient… Kinetic ushered in that transition.
As India progresses further, five-ten years later, Indians will move to smart cars. A car may be the first vehicle but a scooter will still be the second vehicle. As we progress further in Amrut Kaal, it may be that everybody is buying cars and then the two wheeler becomes more of a leisure product which is being seen in Europe and then the two wheeler prediction numbers will start to slow down because everybody is fairly rich, has cars, and the roads are there too. That is what is happening around the world and that is what is happening in India. From mopeds we have moved to motorcycles and now, from 10% gearless scooters, India is already a 40% scooter market. Motorcycles are growing very slowly, scooters are growing faster and that will continue. In between came e-mobility; that will further enhance ‘Scooterization’ also because electric scooters are much more conducive than electric motorcycles. I think that in the next five years the scooter market will go through the roof. If you see Taiwan, it was a 90% motorcycle market, now it is a 90% scooter market. In China, two wheelers have disappeared from the cities, they only have electric scooters which are used for last mile activities. Italy is at an advanced stage where everybody has cars and their scooters are more leisure and fun products. So it is an evolution, that’s what it is. Right now, we are at a stage where the next 10 years will see aggressive scooter adoption as India urbanizes and the motorcycle market will grow slowly or decline, after which it will be cars and then the whole two wheeler market will slowly become a leisure product market but that’s still a long time away.
TOS: Tell us about the learnings from manufacturing your earlier two wheelers and what you plan to do with the rich experience now…
SFM: Two wheelers are very close to Kinetic as you know. These days, two wheelers are much easier to make and have also been made more affordable. However, back in the 80’s, Kinetic Honda, was a 100% ‘Made in India’ scooter. Kinetic Honda was slightly more expensive than the geared scooters yet, it was worth it but more importantly, it wasn’t out of reach. For instance, it was not INR 1 Lakh scooter! Our first Luna was made for INR 1200 – a very affordable option! Even now, it is the same DNA. Value is at the heart of what we do. We use this technology to convince people that electric is the way to go. It is about actually making a difference and converting fuel-based vehicles into electric drive adoption. So Zulu is very important here. It comes at a very interesting price point with good performance and I think it will appeal to youngsters because it is youthful. Today’s 25-35 kmph electric scooters are low-speed scooters that don’t offer pride as everybody overtakes them on the roads. Also, the safety standards are not there as it is an unregistered segment. From buying something that is imported but of bad quality to buying something that is too expensive and costs around INR 1,50,000 that one may use for only three to five years, Zulu, comes in at a very good price point of INR 94,000, exactly equal to a petrol scooter, offering good speed, good features, nice colours and under seat storage. We are trying to appeal to students and convert them to buying electric scooters. Also small town families for whom 60kmph speed is good enough, and who don’t require speeds of 90kmph. Besides, our range of 100km is very good and most importantly, it is from Kinetic, so people have the trust. I think Zulu is an important offering in that space.
TOS: How long did the development of Zulu take… right from conception until its arrival at the dealerships?
SFM: When we used to design iScooters, we took around 30-36 months because you had to deal with designing and engineering the entire engine as well. So you could not really make a new scooter in less… best case scenario… 30-36 months with validation and everything. In electric what happens is that your aggregates are either bought out or are done on a build to print basis. So, you’re able to develop electric scooters in 24 months. We started two years back and it took about 20-24 months for Zulu. The plan was to bring the e-Luna and then to bring this, and so, we worked on Zulu parallelly.
TOS: From what you have described so far, the e-Luna seems like a really exciting offering from your stables. Tell us more…
SFM: Coming next is the e-Luna, in the first quarter of next year. It is already approved and ready, not just by ARAI but even FAME approvals are in place. We are already piloting it and have put 1000 vehicles in the market. We’re just getting ready to streamline the supply chain and get our whole marketing packaging in place. That’s a big one… I’m hoping it will be a Blockbuster!
TOS: You mentioned it is going to be very close to the heritage Luna… , what will be different on the design front?
SFM: Our e-Luna will have the same values, the same thought, and the same concept, in terms of being a cute little runabout. It is simple, affordable, durable, long lasting, made for all kinds of Indian terrain, and made with Indian buying consumer’s behaviour in mind. It is really ‘Made in India’ and ‘Made for India’ but it is not the same old Luna at all. It is a totally new design, where not just the chassis, but everything is new and it is electric! The e-Luna will be offered in multiple variants.
TOS: Who will be your target customer for the e-Luna?
SFM: Right now, we have planned three variants, one is what we call the core utility or delivery variant which will be sold not just for B2B Amazon, Flipkart, fleet operators but also to anybody who wants to use it as a livelihood vehicle. You can remove the backseat, there is a platform there to can keep things on it. It is like a Chalti Phirti dukaan. Delivery/Wholesale to retail, shopkeepers to home… more utility applications. This one will have a range of 120km. The second one is an urban mobility variant where it becomes a cute little runabout. That one will come with diecast wheels, a full seat, some new colour schemes and maybe slightly less range because it is a runabout. You don’t need more than 80 kms… that should be good enough; afterall, it is a runabout to reduce costs. So, that one, we think, will appeal to people in both small and big towns. The third one that is coming is a high performance, higher range one which will have a 3kW motor, top speed of 65kmph along with 150 km range. That is a rural to urban commute. All the e-Lunas are from our own platform, which is a modular platform where we have designed it the way we can change the battery sizes in the same battery tray. There is space for putting different variants and seats… it is like the Ford pick-up truck, you have different options, so, it is a platform, it is not one product.
TOS: Tell us about your high-performance scooter.
SFM: The Zulu is a 10-inch scooter but our high-performance scooter that we’re working on is a 12-inch one. It will be youthful and fun and will come with higher acceleration and 90kmph speed. It will be targeted towards big cities and families.
TOS: Is it a big, heavy weight scooter?
SFM: No, it is not a big, bulky kind of scooter, it is a high performance scooter. This high-performance scooter will come after the e-Luna.
TOS: Has all of this been engineered and designed in-house?
SFM: It is all being designed and engineered in-house. Our scooters Zulu, e-Luna and the new high-performance one will be 100% ‘Made in India’ and engineered at Kinetic. They will have a 100% local supply chain. Similarly our three-wheelers also will not import a single component in it. Our M3, M5 are all fully locally engineered and ‘Made in India,’ sourced in India… everything in India, except for the cell inside the battery, and we have made a magnet inside the motor, which is allowed by the government to be imported. We have worked on that philosophy.
TOS: The Golf cart that you showed us during the presentation looked stunning. What can you tell us about it…
SFM: The Golf carts are a JV with the Lamborghini family and their company Tonino Lamborghini SpA that makes luxury products. We are going to create those beautifully designed Golf carts that are designed in Italy but 100% ‘Made in India’ with a fully local supply chain. It is already engineered. Next year, we will be launching the vehicles and it will be sold globally under the Lamborghini brand.
TOS: What plans are in place at Kinetic Energy for the second life of the batteries?
SFM: The ecosystem is now evolving so what we will do is we will build partnerships. We ourselves will not be doing the repurposing and the recycling but there are companies coming up in this space and we are actively engaged with some of them. Commercials are being worked on where they will offer a repurposing solution to take the battery from our customers and give them some committed value so that we can offer this to our customers at the time of purchase itself. If they come back after a certain number of years, through our partnership with this company, they can avail of some benefits…that’s a value proposition for us also. We’ll work out those back to back arrangements. We are not trying to earn any money in it. The battery would be seamlessly transferred to the partner, the customer would get a new battery and the partner would then ensure that the customer is able to meet all the guidelines of the government that keep coming up. Now, there aren’t too many guidelines for repurposing and recycling, so, we are thinking of doing it through partnerships. There could be some value chain in the future that one can explore as a business model but as of now, we will focus on partnerships as we have our hands full on the OEM side.
TOS: You already have a 500 strong dealer network. What’s the expansion strategy that you are looking at?
SFM: Our strategy is to of course, build the network. We currently have about 320 dealers for two-wheelers and 200 for three-wheelers so that’s our 500 breakup. The plan is to have 1200 dealers for two wheelers and about 400-500 dealers for three wheelers, and then, under that, would be the sub-dealers within the tertiary areas. We are looking for young entrepreneurs because EV is new and having a big Daddy sitting and expecting the customer to walk into the showroom…well that is not going to happen! You have to sell actively and passionately and so, entrepreneurs could be next-gen from automobile families, for instance. Because Kinetic is a trusted brand, we get a good response. There is a continuity. Unlike the old auto business where you had one huge showroom in the city or a dealership, in EV – atleast we are doing it differently – the important thing is accessibility and penetration. Jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai. You have to be near the customer. A customer may not travel 6 kms to buy an EV because already their intention to purchase an EV is borderline, so now, if you tell them to go 6 kms, to the showroom, they may just say “forget it.” On the other hand, if there is a showroom let’s say, just 1 km near their house, it is more likely that they will drop in. Also, we cannot have dealers putting in huge amounts of money to open big showrooms and have less or no sale because the market is very small. So we have changed the [business] model to more of a mobile or a consumer-durables kind of approach where you have more dealerships [but] small format. The showrooms look smart, you’re not making the dealers spend huge amounts of money on the infrastructure, you’re spending more energy on business generation, rotating the money faster and instead of having one showroom in the city… you may even have more than one, depending on the size of the city and on the size of the customer. There is already a lot of dealer mortality in the market because of EV markets growing slowly, this ensures that the dealers are not bleeding and they’re getting more business. So, this is the format that we have chosen and I think it is the right format.
