Magenta Power developing EV charging solutions for rural India

Mumbai-based energy solutions company, Magenta Power is working on developing electric vehicle charging solutions for rural markets. The startup company is a pioneer in creating the EV ecosystem in India from manufacturing and deploying chargers to managing and monitoring the charging systems.

Magenta Power also has an extensive plan of having 500 charging points across the country by 2020 with a mix of ChargeGrid Pro and ChargeGrid Flare.

Speaking to Autocar Professional, Maxson Lewis, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Magenta Power said, “The target is to reach 500 charging points by this year. It will be placed where anybody can go and charge their EVs. Also, we are working on creating a charger that suits rural markets. Because an EV charger at a rural market is as important as one in the urban cities. Even the rural markets need to start adapting to newer trends too. It will have features that suit them and we are testing it now. As we are a startup, we are looking for partners in the area.”

Founded in June 2017, Magenta Power came with the purpose of having a clean energy solution. The company holds its business in three spaces, generation, adoption and utilisation of clean energy. In the year 2018, Magenta Power launched its ChargeGrid business and in June 2018, they set up India’s first solar charging station. In August 2018, they set up the country’s first EV highway at the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Later, they launched an app which allows users to find the charger and also has an integrated payment gateway.

“We are an integrated solution company now, we have our own hardware, software and even our own installation team. We aim to become India’s largest, safest and most cost-optimal EV charging provider. And, we are working towards it. As this is a new industry we have to develop solutions ourselves,” he mentioned.

The company recently partnered with HPCL to bring in a new charging solution, ChargeGrid Flare. It is an EV charging solution at the electric lamp poles. On phase one, this will be available on HPCL petrol bunks and will be rolled out to other places. The startup is also funded by HPCL who is a shareholder in the company. The company took around 18 months to develop the ChargeGrid Flare and have invested around Rs 1.5 crore for the whole process.

 “Why do we need a separate charging place when we have the electric poles? It is part of the government infrastructure and we just need to modulate it. It can charge two-, three- and four-wheelers and we are targeting smart cities, railway parking lots and wherever there is parking that has street lamps. We have done field tests in and around Mumbai. While developing, we even concentrated on the corrosion of paints. These are intelligent chargers and not just power outlets. A lot of work has gone into it,” said Maxson.

Where are they
So far, the ChargeGrid solutions are present in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nashik and more. They are focussing and giving a complete solution to a market and move to other places then. The normal ChargeGrid Pro chargers are in place at malls and the company is working on putting up charging infrastructure in four major cities across the country. “These are top Tier - I cities in India and we will soon be announcing it. We cannot just copy-paste international solutions to Indian markets mainly because of four reasons namely heat, humidity, harmonics and humans,” he stated.

With most of the OEMs setting up charging infrastructure on their own, Magenta Power does not consider this as a challenge or a threat. They look at this as an opportunity to collaborate and work. The startup is in major discussion with most OEMs in the country to set up the infrastructure. A major four-wheeler OEM is in advanced discussion for the same.

Maxson said, “OEMs usually put up chargers in the houses along with the vehicle. Some companies like, Ather wanted to set the environment and build confidence among customers. But typically, companies are not looking at infrastructure. Independent companies like us are working on it. So we are working along with them and collaborating with them. It is a big transition and we have to collaborate.”

The company recently inaugurated its R & D centre in Navi Mumbai with an investment cost of Rs 5 crore and has eight engineers now. They are also looking to set up a new R&D centre which concentrates only on the software part of the company. “It will be opened by 2020 and it will be either in Pune, Hyderabad or Bangalore. We have not decided on the place yet,” the co-founder added.

Also, Magenta Power is looking to enter the international space of the charging infrastructure. “We want to consolidate our market here first. We have got responses from Southeast Asian countries and we will be entering them. It will happen in early 2021,” he signed off.