B K Modi's company forays into enter electric vehicles

The group will manufacture electric buses and taxis for the Indian market through a technological tie-up with Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed BYD

B K Modi-led Smart Global has forayed into the electric vehicle segment in the country through a tie-up with Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed BYD, a global electric vehicle player. The group will manufacture electric buses and taxis for the Indian market through a technological tie-up with BYD. In the long run, the company will also look at producing electric cars for the Indian market.

Modi's electric vehicle arm, Smart Dreams has set up an electric bus manufacturing facility near Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. Modi, who is a Singapore based businessman, is also foraying into electric bus manufacturing in Singapore.

"We are building a company with BYD in Singapore too. If things work out well we will look at other countries as well", Modi, founder and chairman of Smart Global said.

The partnership with BYD will help bring world class technology to the country, he added. When asked about the investments on the e-vehicle vertical, he said the group has already invested Rs 200 crore in a factory in Singapore. Modi said all the investments in the immediate future will be made by his company while the technological inputs will come from BYD. "We will need investment from BYD when we come to the stage of battery manufacturing in India", Modi said.

The e-buses will initially have a 50 per cent localisation and will eventually move to a localisation level of 75 per cent with plans to produce the battery indigenously.

"We are focusing on metro and smart cities in the initial phase to cater to public transport. Later, we can also look at passenger vehicles too," Modi said. He added the group could come up with more production facilities across the country in future.

BYD Head, Automobiles Vertical, Liu Xueliang said India is a very big market for the company. "With the business environment being favorable we feel its the right time for us to capture the e-vehicle market of the country".

Modi said his company is in talks with state transport corporations to sell the electric buses. Without revealing the price of the buses he said it will not have a premium over normal buses. The company has given two electric buses for a trial to the Delhi Transport Corporation free of cost. It will have a price negotiation once the Corporation is certain about the product and has done the trial runs.