Greaves Cotton rolls out lithium ion e-scooters; CNG engines with 25% more mileage up next

Mumbai's diesel engine producer Greaves Cotton is ready to power-up products of Coimbatore-based startup Ampere Vehicles using lithium-ion battery technology.

Greaves will provide the technology for Ampere’s battery-powered scooters that are ready to hit the market this month. Ampere was using the old generation lead-acid battery technology since its formation 10 years ago.

In August last year, Greaves, who is also a provider of small diesel engines to Mahindra & Mahindra and Piaggio, had bought 67 percent in Ampere for Rs 77 crore, making a foray into the electric vehicle space.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Nagesh Basavanahalli, Managing Director, Greaves Cotton said, “Ampere was initially into slow speed, lead-acid class vehicle but after Greaves came in, we brought in high technology lithium-ion battery technology.”

The lead-acid battery type is heavier, has a lesser range of 45-50 km and takes longer time -- eight to 10 hours -- to charge. In comparison, the more expensive lithium-ion batteries take about 5-6 hours for a full charge and run for 60-65 km.

“The high-performance lithium-ion vehicles will start coming into dealerships in April. These will be two-wheelers having a typical range of 60-70 km per charge. We are also working on fast chargers,” Basavanahalli said.

As per the government’s rules, two-wheelers with a maximum speed of 25 km per hour do not require registration. The Greaves-Ampere range of two-wheelers do not need registration and are priced below Rs 50,000.

Greaves Cotton has done a phase-wise investment of Rs 200 crore to make the switch to Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI).

Both M&M and Piaggio renewed their contract with Greaves Cotton to source small diesel engines for their three-wheelers.

“We are taking this challenge of BS-VI on multiple fronts. We are well on our way to get the delivery done with our OE customers (vehicle makers) ahead of schedule. The cost of BS-VI is something we won’t be able to share because it’s only up to the OE customer to share it,” added Basavanahalli.

Along with the transition to BS-VI, Greaves has also been working on compressed natural gas (CNG) technology which promises to provide superior mileage.

“We have been parallelly working on CNG which we are taking to BS-VI also. So this will be for cargo and bigger passenger three-wheelers. We had talked about a new technology for CNG which provides 25 percent higher fuel efficiency while meeting BS-VI regulations,” Basavanahalli added.