Tech start-up Matter to launch electric vehicles, energy solutions in India

Matter, an Ahmedabad-based technology start-up, on Thursday said it would launch electric vehicles and a range of energy solutions in India starting 2021.

The company will enter key Indian cities, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Lucknow and Chandigarh, in stages with these differentiated offerings, said a company release on Thursday.

Matter is led by Mohal Lalbhai, CEO of the Lalbhai family in Gujarat, and Arun Pratap Singh, its chief operating officer, it added.

The start-up, which came into existence in 2019, will manufacture electric motorcycles for the Indian market.

All the powertrain components for Matter's products have been designed by its team and sourced locally, according to the release.

Matter's range of motorcycles will be in the mass-premium category and will promise a unique user experience that incorporates best-in-class approaches to performance, safety, and production standards.

Matter will manufacture its electric motorcycles at its plant in Ahmedabad with an initial production capacity of 60,000 units per annum that will subsequently be scaled up.

The launch is intended for the fourth quarter of 2021.

Matter is also producing its battery packs for in-house consumption and will also supply these to customers in non-compete electric vehicle segments and storage applications, said the release.

Announcing these plans, Matter founder and CEO Mohal Lalbhai said, "The focus of Matter through design and engineering will be to create products and services well suited for the Indian user. We have set a target of 1 billion USD top line by 2025."

"Our vehicles are well aligned with India's strong demand for clean mobility and Matter will be manufacturing these motorcycles at its local plant in Ahmedabad prior to mass distribution across the country," he added.

Moreover, Matter will offer both consumers and enterprise clients a range of energy storage products and solutions, including large-scale energy storage applications such as solar home lighting systems, home inverters, UPS systems as well as non-compete EV products such as battery packs.

The products have been designed by an in-house team of researchers and engineers and will also be manufactured by Matter, said the release.

Matter will begin retail operations by April 2021 through two distribution channels (B2B and B2C).

Initially, this will be for its energy solutions (called MatterEnergy) and subsequently for its range of electric vehicles (MatterMobility) in fourth quarter of 2021.