Tube Investments of India Limited (TII) is eyeing electric tractors and three-wheelers segment as it offers big opportunity. The roll out is expected to happen by the second half of the current year, Vellayan Subbiah, MD, said.
“The Murugappa group firm selected both these segments as the first and second category to get into as they are very ripe for disruption and the cross over point between EV and ICE will happen much before other vehicles,” he said during Q3 earnings call.
To start with, TII will come out with a low horsepower tractor by July or much earlier, three-wheeler by July/August. Besides, it is eyeing e-cycles too.
Mentioning that they are excited about TII’s entry into the tractor space, he said that in India, almost, 80% of the market is between the 40 and 50 horsepower adding that they would come out with a lower horsepower tractor by the July timeframe, if not earlier to the market. “So, our intent is definitely to get into the etractor segments,” he added.
Asserting that the running costs per day of a diesel tractor, especially during cultivation seasons, is extremely high because of the diesel consumption, he said that therefore TII saw the economics of moving to battery as beginning to play out.
On EV three-wheeler launch, he said it was slightly delayed. But, will happen by end of July or early August. Initially, it will focus on the domestic market and later determine how quickly it can enter exports market.
Asked whether TII was looking for partners in the EV space, he said: “Yes, that is an opportunity. We definitely think at the right stage if there are partners with interest, we will do that.”
Mr. Subbiah further said that they are going to stay away from electric two-wheelers and passenger cars, as TII would like to be at the productive end of the spectrum versus the consumptive end, which are more consumptive.
Explaining further, he said that the company was focussed on the more productive end of the spectrum where the vehicle is actually an asset that earns income for the owner. “That’s definitely the case” with the three-wheelers.
