Super cool! I’m always super skeptical of people claiming battery improvements. Is the benefit more of the lithium ion to lead acid switch? Or swapping batteries between use? Keep up the good work. I’d love to see videos of the e-Rick shaws.
You mean another start-up by another professor in another university on another battery chemistry :). we get that a lot. You are spot on. Almost 96% of 2M e-rickshaws in India still run on lead acid battery (because of lower upfront cost). The only way to switch them to better tech (lithium-ion) is by making it more affordable for them.
Yeah, everything here sounds great except for "We also have a patent-pending technology that reduces the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50%." That's a huge claim, which would immediately be many times more valuable than your swapping business. Is this cost reduction perhaps just vs. small-volume retail prices, in India, for specific battery formats, or some other reasonable limitation?
Even with half cost, we are more expensive than lead acid batteries. Typically lithium ion batteries are three times in price compared to lead acid batteries. Erickshaw drivers are very cost sensitive to upfront battery cost. We wanted to give them the most affordable battery solution.
Sure, but if you can reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 50% in general, why are you not just licensing that technology to Tesla and others for gigabucks? Or is your cost reduction quite specific to the batteries that eRickshaw drivers need for some reason?
We will get into electric scooters soon. Focussed on commercial delivery scooter (like for Zomato and swiggy) initially.
So are you able to reduce the cost of a lithium battery by 50% or not? And if so, why are you not just licensing the technology to Tesla?
I apologize. I am not able to share much details on that part as our patent is still pending. Would be happy to do another launch once our patent is granted.