Panasonic's Indian subsidiary eyes Rs 500-cr revenue from solar business

Japan-based Panasonic Corporation's Indian subsidiary Panasonic Life Solutions is eyeing Rs 500 crore revenues from its solar business in the next 3-4 years, with focus to become a leading rooftop EPC player.

Panasonic Life Solutions India, earlier known as Anchor Electricals, is also looking to expand its electric vehicle charging offerings across the country.

"We entered the solar market in 2014-15 and have established ourselves as a rooftop EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) solutions provider. We have been successful in executing projects across the country as well as in a few foreign countries," Panasonic Life Solutions Joint Managing Director Dinesh Aggarwal told PTI.

He said the company will continue to be an EPC player and aims to garner revenues of around Rs 500 crore from the solar business in the next 3-4 years.

As part of its solar business, the company sells modules manufactured by its parent firm at a facility in Malaysia and also develops solar rooftop projects on a turnkey basis.

For the current financial year, the company is eyeing a Rs 200 crore revenue from the solar business with Rs 50 crore coming from the sale of Panasonic HIT modules and the rest from EPC projects. The firm's total revenue target for 2019-20 is Rs 4,000 crore.

In 2018-19, the company recorded a total revenue of Rs 3,410 crore and its solar segment registered Rs 152 crore revenue.

In the current fiscal, the company, which is largely engaged in the electricals sector and offers products such as switches, fans, lighting products, wires, cables and switchgear, is expecting a topline of Rs 3,410 crore.

"We are bullish about the solar market here as there is an increasing acceptance, especially in the industrial and commercial segment, having rooftop captive generation. Earlier, subsidies from the government drove the demand, which is not the case right now. People have realised that they can get a payback in about 5-6 years for their investments. So, I believe investments will continue in solar," Aggarwal said.

He further said price-wise, these modules are costlier than the Chinese modules that make up most of the market.

When asked if the company was planning to set a module manufacturing unit in India, he said, "Right now, the focus is establishing as an EPC player. In future, if there is large-scale investment going to come in rooftop solar, we might consider manufacturing here because the 'Make in India' will become mandatory. The whole emphasis is on performance and capturing the upper segment of the market."

When asked about its electric vehicle services offering, Aggarwal said, "We are gradually progressing in this area. Last year, we launched the smart EV charging service in India under the platform 'Nymbus'. The service helps EV users, EV fleet owners, e-commerce and logistics companies to manage their fleet more efficiently and also the utility providers, vehicle, equipment and battery manufacturers to understand the user patterns and calibrate the products and services accordingly."

As part of the first phase, Panasonic has partnered with electric mobility service providers SmartE and qQuick, wherein Panasonic will deploy the EV charging service on 150 SmartE electric three-wheelers and on 25 qQuick two-wheelers in the Delhi-NCR region.

The company aims to expand the offerings to Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Amaravati in the next three years and 25 more cities in the next five years with a target of catering to around 1 million vehicles.