KEL set to play big role in emerging electric car market

Company holding talks with automobile makers to develop motors for electric cars

The city-based Kerala Electrical and Allied Engineering Company Limited (KEL) looks set to join the big league in the emerging electric vehicle market, with the government-owned company joining discussions with automobile-makers for developing motors for electric cars.

KEL managing director Shaji M. Varghese expressed optimism about the development and pointed out that KEL expected to leverage the new opportunity. “We have been in the field of rotating electrical machinery for about 50 years, and our expertise will stand us in good stead,” he said about KEL’s capabilities for a business that has opened up an entirely new horizon for the company. “KEL is a sought-after maker of alternators, and its products have great market acceptability and competitiveness,” he said about the company’s business status in its core area of operations.

The motors for electrical vehicles, when they emerge, are likely to form the cornerstones for building a new era for the company that had languished for a while for lack of orders and expansion of activities.

Now, KEL is a multi-product engineering company, and its clients include the Indian defence forces, Indian Railways, space research bodies, and State electricity boards.

“We expect to be a dividend-paying, ₹600-crore turnover company by 2020,” he said, explaining the future of KEL, which has now diversified into areas such as civil construction, building steel and suspension bridges, solar plant installations, and offering expertise in small hydro-electric projects with low heads. The company has built around 70 steel and suspension bridges.

Manufacturing units

KEL has manufacturing units at Mamala, Kundara, and Edarikkode. The State Budget for 2017-18 provided ₹18 crore for the modernisation of plant and machinery at the Mamala and Kundara units of KEL. The works are in progress.

One of its areas of operations is setting up of solar farms. KEL has already commissioned a 0.5-MW solar farm in Kuttippuram and another 30 KW plant for Chalakkudy municipality. Other projects are in progress. KEL expects an order book worth ₹100 crore this year for its structural division alone, which will be more than five times the size of the orders during the last financial year. One of the highlights this year has been a ₹30-crore order for transformers from Karnataka.