EKA Mobility, Mitsui, and VDL Groep Commit $100 Million to Electric Vehicle Manufacturing in India
EKA Mobility, an Indian electric car company, is teaming up with Mitsui & Co. from Japan and VDL Groep from the Netherlands. They’re planning to work together for a long time to create a big company in India that makes electric cars. They’ll put money in together and share their technology.
The company says this partnership is a big deal for India’s car industry. They believe it’ll help India become a worldwide centre for eco-friendly transportation. The partners want to invest more than $100 million (about ₹850 crores) together, as they mentioned in their announcement.
“This partnership with Mitsui and VDL Groep represents a significant step toward making India a global hub for electric vehicle manufacturing. We are proud to join forces with such distinguished partners who share our vision of sustainable, profitable and efficient transportation.”
Dr. Sudhir Mehta, Founder and Chairman of EKA Mobility, commented on the development
Global trading and investment company Mitsui & Co., Ltd. will strategically invest in EKA Mobility, allowing the company to grow its product line and ramp up production. The Japanese company will also help EKA with exports to specific emerging markets and system and process setup.
“Through the cooperation of EKA, VDL, and Mitsui, we aim to contribute to “Make in India” by leveraging EKA’s excellent engineering and local network, and VDL’s cutting-edge technological capabilities”,
said Nobuyoshi Umezawa, GM of Mobility Business Division in Mitsui & Co. India.
“Furthermore, we would like to utilize our Mitsui’s global network to promote exporting EKA’s competitive products to overseas markets and contribute to creating eco-friendly societies”,
he added.
Conversely, European e-bus manufacturer VDL Bus & Coach, a subsidiary of VDL Groep, which is already an investment partner of the Indian manufacturer, will assist EKA Mobility by transferring technology to manufacture electric buses in India for the Indian market. Rolf-Jan Zweep, CEO of VDL Bus & Coach, expressed his satisfaction with his company’s improved partnership with EKA.
“Although the basis of our high-quality development and manufacturing competences lie in north-western Europe, we see many opportunities in India, which is obviously a promising growth market. With this cooperation, we foresee especially many synergy benefits in the areas of procurement and development”
he said.
EKA Mobility, a part of Pinnacle Industries Limited, introduced its first product called ‘EKA E9’ last year in India. It’s a 9-meter-long bus that runs completely on electricity. After that, they made versions of the E9 for carrying staff and for school buses. They also made a bus that uses hydrogen as fuel and electricity.
Now, they’re working on making smaller electric vehicles for delivering packages. These are called electric light commercial vehicles (e-LCVs), and they’re still being developed.
They’ve got a lot of orders lined up: more than 500 electric buses and 5000 e-LCVs. This means they’re planning to grow their production of electric vehicles in India. EKA Mobility is also recognized by the government for making electric vehicles and components under specific schemes to support the automobile industry in India.