Hyderabad-based startup Cellestial E-Mobility unveils e-tractor with battery swap and regen braking

Hyderabad-based start-up Cellestial E- Mobility recently unveiled its 6HP electric tractor, which it claims has a performance metrics that is four times that of a equivalent (21HP) diesel tractor. The company plans to launch the e-tractor in the next six months, and is targeting a price of around Rs 500,000, which it says will be cheaper compared to an equivalent diesel tractor.

Cellestial E-Mobility started its operations in May 2019 and has raised about $200,000 (Rs 1.48 crore) funding from Singapore based Angel Investor Meka Sudhakar Reddy. The start-up team comprises Siddhartha Durairajan, who has 25 years of experience in engineering and manufacturing design; Syed Mubasheer Ali, has over 23 years of experience in advanced battery technology; Midhun Kumar with over 16 years of casting, machining and fabrication expertise and Vinod Moudgil with over 30 years of expertise in tractor manufacturing and marketing.

The company says its e-tractor comes with features like battery swapping, regenerative braking, power inversion (use the tractor to power a UPS), charging from residential AC outlet and fast charging capabilities, which will hugely benefit the agriculture and goods carriage market.

Unveiling the prototype, Siddhartha Durairajan, co-founder and promoter, Cellestial E- Mobility said:  “The e- tractor is engineered to be a zero-emission environment-friendly tractor for horticultural or greenhouse works or moving goods within factories, warehouses and to haul baggage in airports. Besides, Cellestial’s 6HP electric tractor is equipped with residential power socket charging and battery-swapping enabled. The market offers huge potential for us, that is why we would like to lead the market and are betting big in this segment”

Syed Mubasheer Ali, co-founder and partner, Cellestial E -Mobility: “The Cellestial e-tractor can cover up to 75km on a single charge, has max power of 18HP and 53 NM peak torque and reaches a speed of up to 20kph. It recharges in 6 hours with Cellestial’s proprietary residential charger at any conventional single-phase 16 Amps outlet, and with an industrial infrastructure setup, it can fast-charge in 2 hours flat.”

The start up says that on an average the running cost of the e-tractor will be significantly lower than its diesel engine counterpart. It estimates that the running cost of a conventional 21HP diesel tractor is roughly around Rs 150 per hour while for the Cellestial E-Mobility tractor will be around Rs 20 to Rs 35 a hour.

Midhun Kumar, director — Manufacturing, Cellestial E-Mobility: “Cellestial E-Mobility targets to build 8,000 tractors in the next 36 months and further increase its production capacity in Balanagar Industrial area to meet the rising demand of the e-tractors.”

Durairajan states that with the Central and State government policies and their eagerness to introduce EVs, coupled with decreasing battery costs, technological advances in charging infrastructure, innovative business models, the influx of smart digital technologies, as well as green policies and subsidies will give a boost to companies like Cellestial E-Mobility.

The company claims that its e-tractor is based on smart technology solutions, which is indigenously developed to cut down on emissions and helps boost fuel efficiency, thereby enhancing productivity and agriculture output. The e-tractor comes with regenerative braking.