Greaves Cotton’s e-mobility arm Greaves Electric Mobility on Tuesday announced the opening of its largest EV production facility at Ranipet in Tamil Nadu.
The facility was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and the state’s Minister for Industries, Thangam Thenarasu.
Spread in 35 acre, the plant is located in the industrial centre of Tamil Nadu and will serve as an e-mobility hub for both domestic and export markets, the company said.
The facility is a part of the Rs 700-crore investment plan announced by the company earlier this year to enhance its market share further in the rapidly expanding domestic EV space, it added. Last month, the company sold over 7,500 units.
The manufacturing facility with additional assembly lines will produce 1-million vehicles a year, the company said.
“Through Greaves Electric Mobility, we are solving real-world mobility challenges of common Indians. Therefore, not surprisingly our e-mobility business has seen over 48 prer cent growth from H1 FY21 to H1 FY22,” Nagesh Basavanhalli, MD and Group CEO, Greaves Cotton told PTI.
“Interestingly, 40 per cent of our sales is through referrals, indicating a strong word-of-mouth patronage of the brand. This is the strength of our brand that is allowing us to aim big in the e-mobility space as we go about creating technically sound and comfortable-to-ride electric 2Ws at a scale that puts us in the forefront of the Indian EV revolution,” Basavanhalli said.
He further noted that “this EV mega site will help us meet the rising needs of discerning customers and fleet purchasers in the last-mile mobility market as we expand our capacities to produce a million EVs a year in future.”
This plant will also allow the company to nurture a highly skilled workforce and generate employment for the local community including women who form 70 per cent of the plant’s workforce, he added.
The new manufacturing plant is also in accordance with the central government’s flagship initiatives such as “Make-in-India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” to promote indigenous capabilities in manufacturing, the company said.
“Tamil Nadu has now become the destination of choice for EV manufacturers. With a host of companies across the EV supply chain located here and in the process of setting up their operations, the state has emerged as the EV capital of India,” said Pooja Kulkarni, MD and CEO, Guidance Tamil Nadu, which is state’s nodal agency for investment promotion single window facilitation.
Moreover, this facility will further strengthen the ecosystem with a wide pool of technical personnel, strong R&D capabilities, ancillary auto components, and manufacturing experience, she said, adding, “we welcome more companies like Greaves to be part of this mission to transform the transportation and connectivity infrastructure in the country.”
Greaves Electric Mobility has a robust retail and after-sales network with over 7,000 touchpoints, according to the release.