Wardwizard Set to Introduce Electric Vehicle Below Rs 10 Lakh in FY25
Chairman and managing director Yatin Gupte said in an interview that electric vehicle manufacturer Wardwizard Innovations & Mobility plans to partner with a global brand to launch an electric car under Rs 10 lakh next year.
The five-door, five-seater battery electric car will be unveiled in the July–September quarter.
In a telephonic interview, Gupte said the identity of the partner company will be disclosed in the January–March quarter. “We will announce a strategic partnership with a four-wheeler company that is not in India at the moment. The paperwork is on and we will announce it in a few weeks,”
he added.
Many eastern Asian electric vehicle (EV) businesses, such as VinFast, Foxconn, and others from China, are eager to join the Indian EV industry.
Only the MG Comet and Tata Tiago are available in India for less than Rs 10 lakh. Hyundai had earlier mentioned a car for under Rs 10 lakh, while Renault intends to bring the Kwid electric vehicle to the nation for less than Rs 10 lakh in the coming years.
In addition to electric vehicles, Wardwizard wants to expand into other automotive markets. It intends to join the 0.6-1.5 tonne small electric truck market.
The company plans to launch its first product by the end of February, and by the end of the following year, it will have a 26-seater bus and a truck weighing between 3.5 and 4.5 tons.
Wardwizard had earlier this month announced a partnership with US-based Triton to produce electric trucks for the UAE and domestic markets. In addition to serving as Triton’s contract manufacturer, the Indian business will be cultivating suppliers and vendors for Triton’s powertrain.
Wardwizard, a Mumbai-based company, is currently in the advanced stages of obtaining certification for benefits under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) program. The company will also be making improvements to its traditional business of producing electric two-wheelers. A few product launches are scheduled for the upcoming months.
The company is also increasing the capacity for the electric three-wheeler models; it plans to increase production from approximately 15,000 units annually to 150,000 units annually. A new plant that will produce the three-wheelers will be operational in six months with an investment of Rs 90-100 crore.
In the next 20 months, a 1-gigawatt small-scale electric vehicle battery manufacturing factory, including battery cells, would begin production at an estimated cost of `580-600 crore. The company will invest a total of Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 2,500 crore in these projects.
“We are in the process of raising funds in the form of debt, equity and ADRs. In the next 3-4 months, we would be well-equipped with funds. Debt would be 35-40%, the rest would be bond and equity. We are not looking at diluting promoter’s stake in the company at the moment,”
Gupte said.