Pinnacle betting big on sustainable mobility

EKA, the electric vehicle arm of Pinnacle Industries will launch a hydrogen-basedbusandLCV in this calendar. Underpinning both products philosophy of lean manufacturing and shared technologies. Brian de Souza has the details of the company's journey into the electric space.

- Brian de Souzah

When EKA, the wholly-owned arm of Pinnacle V V manufacturer unveiled its 9-metre electric bus in Industries, the Pune-based component Pune in early April, it was undoubtedly a major milestone for the company. The company's top leadership is categorical that it wants to play a key role in India's emerging EV space, and be a disruptor.

As Sudhir Mehta, Chairman of EKA and Pinnacle Industries puts it, "We first began thinking of a foray into electric six years ago," and when that was carved in stone, Mehta and his team went about putting in the building blocks for the project. Mehta said, that "We realised we would go through this transition to sustainability and therefore being ready for it was imperative. India's import bills on crude oil are high and every hike has an effect on GDP growth."

This led to the first foundational stone for the foray. Pinnacle Industries signed a joint venture with VDL, a European bus company that operates in the EV space, and has companies on the continent that are in auto segment including body shops. The JV began working in the body shop before expanding into other areas.

Pinnacle then realised that as it began to think intensely about the EV foray that "for India we needed to develop specific EV technology". And for CVs, the segment it wanted to be in. Setting a context, Mehta says that as far as Europe goes, an average e-bus costs in the region of 400,000 to 500,000 euros; the market is small and prices high.