EV industry must learn to do with subsidies: Exponent Energy CEO

The electric mobility ecosystem must learn and survive without the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) subsidies, cofounder and chief executive of Lightspeed India-backed energy-tech startup Exponent Energy, Arun Vinayak, told ET on Friday.

“This whole concept of I'll give everyone subsidy and rely on FAME in some sense is a good place to start. But I think it's also a lazy way to continue going. So I think you'll see a lot more performance-based incentives and production-linked incentives. You will still see incentives but it won't be an easy give-out,” he said.

Vinayak’s comments come at a time when the government has withdrawn FAME-II subsidies at the end of March, moving on to the Rs 500-crore Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS), 2024.

Founded in 2020 by former Ather Energy executives Vinayak and Sanjay Byalal Jagannath, the company has developed a proprietary fast-charging technology that claims to fully charge a vehicle in 15 minutes. Most fast-charging options in the market only allow up to 80% charge from zero charge, and take upwards of an hour for this.

Tarun Mehta, cofounder and chief executive of electric scooter maker Ather Energy, said the overall two-wheeler EV industry would require government subsidies to continue to grow at a healthy rate, ET had reported earlier.

According to Vinayak, interoperability in charging infrastructure is good, but standardisation is bad. “The government should focus on creating safety standards but not force a standard because that will kill innovation,” he said.

On February 20, ET reported that officials, especially from the ministry of power, have been regularly consulting with firms in the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem to push interoperability between battery-charging standards.

The company plans to install 100 charging stations in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru this year while expanding its network in Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. It also intends to enter the intercity e-bus segment in 2024.

In December 2023, it raised $26.4 million in a funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures. It has raised $44.4 million in total so far. The company started selling its products in February 2023, and is looking to clock Rs 600 crore in revenue for calendar year 2025.