Globally, the mobility landscape is evolving rapidly in terms of technology and consumer interest, specifically in the commercial vehicle segment that caters to the logistics industry. Rising fuel costs and climate change awareness are making internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles unpopular. Electric vehicles (EVs) are slowly replacing them.
However, one of the biggest challenges in EV adoption is long charging time and short battery life; it often takes four to eight hours to charge an EV fully. In the last-mile delivery space, this means a loss of business, revenue and growth.
Four to eight hours of charging time also means only three to four EVs can be charged per day at charging stations. This makes EV charging an unfeasible, non-profitable, and uninvestable prospect.
A holistic approach
This is where Exponent Energy’s innovative energy solutions come in handy.
The Bengaluru-based deeptech startup, founded by Ather Energy’s former CPO Arun Vinayak and former HUL executive Sanjay Byalal, has built a battery pack (e^pack) and charging station (e^pump) to simplify EV charging. These two solutions together unlock a zero to 100 per cent rapid charge within 15 minutes for EVs with any number of wheels and provide a 3,000-cycle life warranty –- all while using affordable Lithium-ion cells to make rapid charging scalable.
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The e^pump is their rapid charging station. A collection of e^pumps forms a network. Each e^pump delivers 600A of current to its e^pack (15x industry standard) while managing individual cell characteristics, including thermals, to ensure safety, long battery life and performance consistency even at 50 degrees Celsius.
According to Co-Founder and CEO Vinayak, currently, Exponent Energy is deploying 100 e^pumps in Bengaluru. “We plan to establish a minimum network of 100 e^pumps in all the cities we operate to support these vehicles and deliver 15-minute rapid charging consistently.”
Joining forces
Exponent Energy recently joined forces with Altigreen Propulsion Labs to introduce rapid charging technology for commercial EVs. The partnership entails jointly working on exponent-enabled EVs, with the first being in the 3-wheeler cargo vehicle category.
The intention is to accelerate EV adoption, ensure higher uptime, provide the safest solution and rapid charge capability, and be future-ready by being dependent on single chemistry.
“The Exponent-enabled Altigreen neEV HD has an 8.19 kWh e^pack, a proprietary battery by Exponent. The vehicle delivers a city drive range of 80-85 km and charges fully in 15 minutes at Exponent’s e^pump network,” added Vinayak.
The customer deliveries of the Exponent-enabled vehicles will begin from October 2022, starting with Bengaluru. It aims to make rapid charging a reality for e-commercial vehicles on Indian roads.
The prices will be revealed soon.
The future looks swift
Building such a network requires funds, said Vinayak, where Exponent Energy’s Series A round becomes crucial. Days ago, the firm raised US$13 million, led by Lightspeed India.
The funding comes soon after the startup launched what it claims to be the world’s fastest-charging electric three-wheeler and received the backing of the family office of Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO of Indian two-wheeler honcho Hero MotoCorp. Existing institutional investors, YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, and AdvantEdge VC, also participated in the Series A round. Interestingly, this is also Lightspeed India’s first investment in the domestic EV space.
Also Read: Indian EV makers need to improve the perception on quality: Ather Energy’s Tarun Mehta
Exponent will use the money to scale up the charging network to 100 points per city, besides streamlining battery pack production and delivering more exponent-enabled EVs. “We also target to deploy 2,000 Exponent-enabled electric three-wheelers along with 100 e^pumps in Bengaluru before expanding to other locations,” he noted.
The company generates revenues by selling battery packs to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the charging network. Apart from the monetisation logic of including the battery pack and charging infrastructure as a package deal, it also makes sense to do so from a technology perspective.
“Our technology already delivers a seamless charging experience. With our vehicle partnership in place, we will scale up our production and network presence to 100 e^pump location points per city to deliver freedom and flexibility to our customers,” concluded Vinayak.
Can Exponent Energy’s innovative charging technology start a revolution in the EV space?
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