Page 47 - MMI - JanFeb 2021 single

tery packs and BMS. The pack HR, Finance & Accounts, Com-
will soon be certified for AIS- pliance, and Supply Chain. Nas-
48, and subsequently, the eHCV kar, on the other hand, looks at
will be sent for certification.” leading technology and prod-
All of the company’s CVs have uct development for electric
4G/LTE connectivity, and the powertrains and eCVs.
data acquired from the oper- The company is backed by some
ation of these vehicles is up- of the largest early-stage VCs in
loaded to its Mobility Platform. the Indian ecosystem. “Some of
The mobility platform is an our major investors are Endi-
integrated software platform ya Partners, growX Ventures,
to process the acquired data and Micelio Mobility Fund. We
to offer analytics and a host of have raised around US$3 mil-
value-added services like OTA lion cumulatively across all our
updates, health monitoring, equity financing rounds and
energy management, charge more than US$1 million in debt
scheduling, etc. to Cell Propul- Source: CellProp Pvt Ltd financing,” he adds.
sion customers.
“In India, more than 80 percent of Hurdles on the way Currently,
The start of the journey freight is moved by CVs (Commer- Revealing the key challeng- the company
Cell Propulsion was founded cial Vehicles). Hence, their lar- es the startup currently faces, is deploying
by Kukar, Paras Kaushal, ge-scale electrification will not just Kukar explains, “Due to lack eLCVs with
a 1-tonne
and Supratim Naskar. Before reduce emissions but also India’s of local production, global sup-
diesel import.” playload to
CellProp, Kukar and Kaushal ply chain disruptions caused an initial set
worked at the Indian Space Nakul Kukar by the pandemic, and a global of custom-
Founder & CEO
Research Organization (ISRO) CellProp Pvt Ltd semiconductor shortage, sup- ers. These
eLCVs are
on its launch vehicle rocket ply chain and inventory man-
re-man-
engine systems. At the time, agement has become an issue.” ufactured
Naskar, Chief Technical Offi- were involved in the design & The availability of skilled talent vehicles that
cer (CTO) of the company, was development of core technolo- to build high-voltage, high-pow- are built
working on launch vehicle pay- gy and powertrain components er equipment for eHCVs is an- from the
load fairings and mechanisms. like battery packs, BMS, mo- other problem, he acknowledges. ground up
in its facility
Kukar and Paras Kaushal, tors, drives, etc. Subsequently, When asked how the compa- using bat-
COO & Co-Founder of the com- they worked on integrating ny copes with the competition tery packs
pany, had also worked with all these discrete components in the field, Kukar responds, and BMS
an aerospace startup on the into powertrain systems for “The key to competing in developed
design & development of lunar eLCVs and eHCVs. “Our initial the CV segment is to offer the and man-
ufactured
lander systems and the design goal was to sell eCVs to logistics most advanced features in our in-house.
& development of solar-pow- companies. But upon realizing eCVs and make them catego-
ered electric aircraft. While various systemic challenges ry-leading products for the
working on the electric aircraft involved in their adoption, we customers. Some such features
project, they realized that the began to focus on building the are payload capacity, range,
electrification of ground ve- complete ecosystem to acceler- starting torque, etc. Offer-
hicles represented a massive ate the adoption and make the ing the best specifications for
opportunity in India. Given transition for logistics compa- these features at a reasonable
the experience gained with EV nies to electric highly seam- price is being achieved by us
technology and prior experi- less,” shares Kukar. through in-house technology
ence in managing complex en- While Kukar sees fundraising, development and massive ver-
gineering projects, they decid- investor interactions, business tical integration.”
ed to initiate this venture. development, and formulating Cell Propulsion also offers a
The company started full-time the overall strategy and vision host of digital solutions and
operations in 2017 with the for the company, Kaushal is services to operate and manage
goal of designing and produc- responsible for managing com- eCVs efficiently. This enables
ing electric commercial vehi- pany operations and oversee- the consistent performance of
cles (eLCVs and eHCVs). During ing the general administration, its products and increases sav-
the initial years, the Founders infrastructure development, ings for its customers during

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