EKA Mobility plans ₹1,000-crore R&D investment, targets 40,000-unit capacity utilisation by 2030

EKA has an order book of more than 11,000 buses valued at $1.7 billion.

Electric commercial vehicle maker EKA Mobility plans to invest ₹1,000 crore in research and development (R&D) over the next four to five years as it steps up manufacturing capacity and seeks to expand its domestic and overseas footprint, founder and chairman Sudhir Mehta said.

The Pune-based company on Friday inaugurated six new manufacturing plants across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, taking its annual production capacity to 40,000 vehicles. The expanded capacity comprises 24,000 small commercial vehicles, 10,000 buses and 6,000 trucks.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Heavy Industries Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, among others.

“EKA aims to scale up sales to match this capacity by 2030,” Mr. Mehta told journalists.

A subsidiary of automotive components manufacturer Pinnacle Industries, EKA has invested ₹3,500 crore in the business so far, he said. Japan’s Mitsui & Co and the Netherlands-based VDL Groep are its strategic partners.

The company, which currently has a presence in Zanzibar and Nepal, aims to raise exports to 20-30% of total sales over the next few years. It is exploring further opportunities in the African markets.

“We are looking at Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda and many African markets, basically, much of West and South Africa,” Mr. Mehta said.

EKA has an order book of more than 11,000 buses valued at $1.7 billion, with deployments across 14 states. It has also sold more than 1,500 electric small commercial vehicles for passenger mobility, last-mile delivery and goods transportation across the country.

The company is a Champion OEM under the Centre’s Automotive Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and has secured PLI certification across all its product platforms.

On policy support for the electric commercial vehicle industry, Mr. Mehta flagged the limited availability of financing as a key constraint to faster adoption and expansion.

“Finance is not available today to the extent it needs to be. We have made many suggestions, like make it priority sector or give some kind of subvention or a special scheme to support financing,” he said.

[The reporter was in Pune at the invitation of Eka Mobility]

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