Energizing India Podcast

Harshavardhana Gourineni is an accomplished business leader who has made significant contributions to the growth and expansion of Amara Raja Energy and Mobility Limited. Harshavardhana has worked in various roles and industries, gaining a wide range of experience and expertise. After living in the US for 25 years, Harsha moved to India and was appointed as Executive Director of Amara Raja. In this role, he is responsible for leading the automotive and industrial business, which has a turnover of over $1 billion in revenue. In this episode, we explore what lies ahead for lead-acid batteries, what could be the relevant use cases for them once replaced with lithium, and how we are going to recycle them sustainably. Check out the episode today!

Bicycles have been pivotal in revolutionizing transportation, offering efficient and accessible mobility for centuries. From enabling faster commutes to fostering leisurely exploration, bicycles have shaped modern society's connectivity and sustainability. But, in this age of electrification, can bicycles still be a part of our everyday lives? Today we have Aditya Oza and Sumedh Battewar, the co-founders of Emotorad, a very interesting startup based out of Pune, who are working on making this a reality.

Charge times, battery safety, and affordability are crucial - big obstacles that hinder the faster adoption of electric vehicles globally. In this episode, we engage with a remarkable company in India that is endeavoring to address these challenges in a unique way. Today, we speak with Dr. Akshay Singhal, Founder, and CEO of Log 9 Materials, who holds an honors degree in materials engineering from IIT Roorkee and is also a Forbes under 30 Asia honoree. Log 9 was founded in 2015, and in this time, it has amassed 35 industry-defining patents that attest to the organization's first-principle thinking. Log 9 Materials is able to offer batteries that can be charged nine times faster, last nine times longer, and offer nine times higher performance and safety. This is a fun one!

Today, we speak with Sheetanshu Tyagi, co-founder of Emo Energy. Emo has developed Zen, a battery tech platform for net-zero solutions, boasting 100% fire safety, a swift 20-minute charge, and 120% extended battery life. Sheetanshu has a decade of expertise in the mobility sector, including roles with major OEMs like Rivian, Ather, and Ola, and is dedicated to creating a sustainable transport system for cleaner cities.

As countries around the world rapidly accelerate their transition to clean energy and clean mobility, amidst all the celebrations of zero emissions, we persistently ask a set of uncomfortable questions. What would happen if all vehicles transitioned to electric? Can the grids in different countries handle such a massive shift? And will wait times for access to charges, and then to charge, become the norm? Today, we speak to a company addressing both of these challenges. In this episode, we turn our focus to Europe as we interview the CEO of an intriguing charge point operations company that originated in Italy but now operates across Europe. Joining us is Luca Fontanelli, CEO at E-GAP.

Apart from causing a lot of traffic, commercial trucks play a very key role in running everyday life in India. However, over the years, these internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks have been major contributors to environmental pollution. Addressing this particular issue today, we have Rohan Shravan, the CEO at Tresa Motors—one of the few companies that is actively building intellectual property (IP) in India, and that too in a space largely dominated by legacy players. This is going to be a fun conversation. Rohan, welcome to the program.

Hydrogen is considered an energy source for mobility worldwide. However, it's essential to note that green hydrogen derives from solar, wind, or hydro power energy sources. It goes beyond just mobility and plays a crucial role in the energy transition by decarbonizing large manufacturing processes, particularly in industries like steel, cement, and paper that rely on gas for their furnaces. Additionally, hydrogen can contribute to achieving energy independence, especially for countries like India. Today, we are speaking with Siddharth Mayur, the founder and CEO of H2e Power, India's first green energy electrolyser and fuel cell company with operations in India, Germany, and the USA

On this show, we typically speak to protagonists who are making policy decisions, regulatory decisions, manufacturing cars, or running a power grid. Sometimes, they are involved in battery production or various aspects of the clean mobility value chain. Every now and then, we have the privilege to speak with super users of electric vehicles to discuss problems, challenges, opportunities, comparisons, and the joys of driving electric vehicles. Today, this is one of those special shows. We are speaking with Manish Jain. Manish co-founded Shadi.com and later, even M Profit, names that are almost synonymous with anyone in the tech space. Manish shares his experience of driving a Tesla Model S Plaid and how he came about to own a KIA EV6. Tune in today!

On the show, we rarely have the same guest visit twice. Today, we talk to a very special person who's coming on the show for the third time: none other than Vasudha Madhavan, CEO & Founder at Ostara Advisors. She is an investment banker who helps facilitate investments as well as M&A transactions in the Electric Vehicle Space. In this special episode, we talk about the Funding Winter, major deals this year from January to August, the categories that are doing well, and much more.

The motorcycling spirit is a passion that runs deep. It's a love for the open road and the freedom it brings. It's the feeling of the wind against your skin and the rush of adrenaline in your heart. So, what would happen when a hardcore biker desires to challenge the age-old industry and aspires to build one of the most impressive motorcycles to come out of India? Today, we speak with Ranjita Ravi, the co-founder and CEO at Orxa Energies, who is building Mantis, an all-electric performance bike, and much more. You don't want to miss this one.

The EV revolution that we are witnessing globally right now has demonstrated that legacy players have been repeatedly caught off guard as new technologies were adopted earlier than they had anticipated. Whilst General Motors and Ford were sleeping, Tesla changed how people drive in America. Legacy car makers globally, even the super green European ones, had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the clean mobility era, more than 10 years after Tesla launched their first commercial car. In most sub-sectors within the clean mobility sector, the same pattern is evident as well. Legacy lead-acid battery makers stood on the sidelines as CATL, Panasonic, and a myriad of other small startup companies led the race in lithium-ion battery adoption globally. Typically, legacy players have waited because they did not understand the technology and decided to move only when new technology started to become a threat to their existing business. But in this brave new world, that might be just waiting too long and being caught in the pincers of a Kodak or a Xerox moment. In this episode, we deep dive into the battery sector to understand why this pattern of legacy players taking their time keeps repeating itself. We speak to one of the big daddies of the battery world in India, who also dominates their sector in many of the countries they export to, and who, unlike most legacy players, is moving fast to learn, adopt, and dominate the new technology wins that are raging across their business. Today, we welcome the Executive Director of Amara Raja Batteries, Vikramadithya Gourineni, on this deep-dive journey.

In this episode, we hit the road and have a conversation with Visakh Sasikumar, an entrepreneur who co-founded Fyn, a startup focused on end-to-end micro-electric mobility. Their approach involves leveraging data to enhance productivity during the last mile of delivery. Visakh, an alumnus of IIT Madras, envisions making last-mile zero-emission mobility more efficient through complete digitization. By blending technology with execution, he aims to facilitate rapid scale-up. Currently, he is actively involved in building India's largest vertically integrated electric vehicle ecosystem platform, catering to both last-mile logistics and commute applications. Energizing India podcast is powered by Ador Digatron Pvt Ltd

How often in your life do you get to meet someone who wants to design and launch a new car, an actual car? For many kids, particularly boys, the first ever drawing they make is often a car. But very few grow up with that dream to challenge an established industry that is over 100 years old and is dominated by giants. Today, we speak to someone who is actually doing that—designing and launching an electric car specifically for urban mobility in India. We speak with Nilesh Bajaj, co-founder & CEO at Vayve Mobility.

Today we are speaking with Vasudha Madhavan, the founder and CEO of Ostara Advisors, the first electric mobility and sustainability investment bank. Ostara Advisors has facilitated some of the pioneering investment deals in the sector, such as Greaves' acquisition of Ampere and Altigreen's raising of the largest private equity round in this space in India. Join us for a relaxed and fun conversation as we delve deep into the finance sector of EVs, discuss the various capital raised by EV startups in India, and explore the segments to look forward to in the EV industry.

More often than not, we speak with people who bring to India a brilliant idea or technology from overseas. Today, our show features a subtle difference as we speak with the founder and CEO of a company that is swimming furiously against the trend. While the market is flooded with electric scooters being assembled by a myriad of companies in India, this company is making a fast, furious, and sexy electric motorcycle. They are producing a world-class product for consumers, designed and made here in India. In this episode, we speak with Kapil SHELKE, Founder & CEO at Tork Motors. Energizing India is powered by Ador Digatron Pvt Ltd

In today's episode, we are changing the pace and diving into the world of hydrogen. If you have been curious about the global hydrogen industry, how it works, and what it involves, this episode is especially for you. Today we go to Sweden to meet Nilsson Energy, a company that has developed a small-scale off-grid solution for generating hydrogen using solar or wind energy. This solution can help schools, communities, or even small towns to go off-grid and generate power 24/7 using 100% renewable energy using hydrogen electrolysers and fuel cells. Nilsson Energy's solution also generates hydrogen from the sun, which is used for clean mobility in cars and buses in the charming city of Mariestad in central Sweden. Today, we speak with the co-founder of Nilsson Energy, Martina Wettin, who is recognized as one of the global women leaders in hydrogen.

On our program, we have the opportunity, or perhaps the word is providence, to speak with some of the major protagonists and decision-makers in the electric mobility sector in India. More than ever we have enjoyed speaking with the senior team at MG Motor India, who so often bring an unfiltered and refreshing viewpoint on clean mobility. Today we welcome back to our program Gaurav GUPTA, Chief Commercial Officer of MG Motor India. His team recently commissioned a very interesting study through Nielsen in India exploring driver behavior and road use challenges as a run-up to the launch of their latest EV in India... the MG Comet. Our host Ravin MIRCHANDANI spoke with Gaurav this week where the conversation covered the findings of the Nielsen study and some teasers on the new Comet soon to be launched.

Over the last two years of this program, we have had discussions with industry leaders and key protagonists from the electric and clean mobility sector in India. We have gained insightful knowledge about what makes this industry tick and why some companies are successful while others struggle to find a breakthrough. Often, there have been golden nuggets on how they continued to find success in a market full of uncertainty and adventure in these early years of energy transition. During our deep dives in this program, we occasionally have special moments like today where we get to chat with a super user of EVs in India. We uncover the perspectives of the most important person in the entire electric mobility value chain - the driver of the vehicle. Today, we had a conversation with Priyans Muraka, an EV superuser who owns an MG ZS EV and has completed more than 20,000 KMs using it on work trips across India. We discussed why he chose the MG, his experience with not just fast chargers, but also the various charge point operators, and the pain points of early adopting EV users. Priyans also has his own blogs on using his EV across India and brought a wealth of information for CPOs and EV car manufacturers. Experience With EVs - http://expwithevs.in/

In this episode, we’ve got to do something that is very unique and not normally possible. We were fortunate to have four opinionators- all CEOs of charge point operations companies in India, who visited our Artemis studio on the very same day. They were in Pune to be a part of the energizing India summit, an annual event held every November bringing together key CEOs and decision-makers from the entire clean mobility sector in India. It was one of the most special episode so far!

On 2nd January 2021, as the world was still grappling with the strict Corona lockdowns, limited flights, and hotels being open, we at Energizing India had the opportunity to travel to Delhi to meet with Reji Pillai, President of India Smart Grid Forum. When we asked Reji what is the route to the quickest adoption of clean mobility in India, he responded with amazing clarity. A strong government policy focused on converting intra-city buses from ICE to fully electric. Reji suggested a government mandate and ban on new ICE buses for public transport, but in two years since that conversation, what has happened is classically Indian. There was no government ban and no overt government policy to change all public transport to fully electric in cities. But as everything beautiful and magical in India, it just started to happen. Today most Indian megacities like Ahmedabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, amongst others already run more than a hundred electric buses each as part of their public transport system. The miracle happened while the rest of the industry was tracking the launch of the Kia EV6, the Mercedes EQS, and the Ather scooters. Quietly and all of a sudden people in the big cities of India are traveling in greater comfort. Air-conditioned buses that are safer and don't pollute the air while millions commute to and back from work every day. So today we decided to focus on this public intracity bus sector, and we spoke with Ravi Panga, CEO of the Causis Group. A very interesting company that has acquired an electric bus tech company in Europe and whose electric bus operates in Kyrgyzstan, Mauritius, and even in Qatar for the FIFA world cup and now the new Bombay double-decker electric bus that has us all so very excited.