TI Clean Mobility Pvt Ltd (TICMPL), the electric vehicle (EV) arm of Murugappa Group’s engineering firm Tube Investments of India Ltd (TII), plans multi-pronged expansion – to go for one more round of fund raise, incur higher capex in FY25, to strengthen its EV supply chain and launch network expansion in northern and eastern regions to sell its electric three-wheelers.

Regarding funding for the EV arm, TII has already infused ₹250 crore as equity into TICMPL and ₹500 crore as Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS). TICMPL has also mobilised about ₹1,200 crore through private equity investors. Overall, the EV arm has raised funds to the tune of ₹1,950 crore so far.

“I do not think we are necessarily done with the raising of funds. We will raise one more round of funds,” Vellayan Subbiah, Executive Chairman, TII, said during the company’s Q3-FY24 earnings call. But he didn’t disclose the amount to be raised.

The EV company has spent a capex of about ₹300 crore so far in this current fiscal and it plans to incur a capex of about ₹460 crore during the next fiscal for all businesses under TICMPL, the company management indicated during the call.

New segments

TICMPL has planned to enter four product segments — e-three-wheelers, e-tractors, electric medium and commercial vehicles (through its subsidiary IPLTech Electric), and electric small trucks (through its subsidiary TIVolt Electric Vehicles).

It has already entered the electric 3W auto segment with the introduction of electric autorickshaw Montra. The battery-powered 3W is currently sold in the southern states – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana. It is now looking to expand to the northern and eastern regions with the dealer network expansion.

The company received a good response for the E3W in southern states and has started adding dealerships in the north and the east as they are major markets for these vehicles. We will start the process of adding the dealerships in this quarter and we should start seeing traction in the next quarter in the North and East in addition to the South, said Subbiah.

The company has, so far, set up 45 dealerships and will ramp up the network to 75 outlets by the end of this quarter. According to Vahan data, TICMPL has sold close to 1,800 units of its E3Ws in FY24.

The management also indicated that supply chain stabilisation had been achieved and production ramp-up for E3W was being undertaken.

EV supply chain

The company is strengthening its R&D to establish a stronger EV supply chain. Overall, its R&D operations employ about 250 people. It is now working to separate the R&D operations into two teams — one team will be working on product development and vehicle integration, and the other team will focus on developing next-generation EV component architecture.

While EV components such as motors, motor control units, vehicle control units, and battery management systems are being sourced from third parties, it is seeking to develop motors and motor control units in-house in the future. Also, it has begun to establish battery-packing capabilities with imported cells.

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