Omega Seiki plans Rs 1,900 crore E-three-wheeler plant in Karnataka

Omega Seiki Mobility has announced its plans to set-up an electric three-wheeler manufacturing facility in Karnataka, which it claims will be the world’s largest with an investment of $250 million (Rs 1,900 crore).

The company says the new facility will be built in three phases and will have a production capacity of a million electric three-wheelers per annum when completed. The company will be raising funding in the form of equity as well as debt to build the OSM Megafactory which is slated to commence production by FY24.

The new facility will be supplemented by its own supply chain of powertrains and battery packs. It is also in active negotiation with existing as well as new suppliers for setting up ancillary manufacturing facilities in the vicinity of the the company's megafactory which will be built over an area of 250 acres.

In FY22, OSM’s Rage+ electric cargo 3-wheelers saw the highest number of sales with more than 1,000 units sold (as per Vahaan Portal in L5N category). The plant will produce the entire range of its electric three-wheeler vehicles which include Rage+, Rage+ RapidEV, Rage+ Frost, Rage+ Swap, and Rage+ Tipper. In addition, the new plant will also be manufacturing the soon to be introduced OSM Stream which will be an electric three-wheeler passenger carrier.

Uday Narang, chairman and founder, OSM said "Electric three-wheelers now command a massive 46 percent of overall three-wheeler volumes. We at OSM believe that adoption of EVs in the last-mile delivery sector and government bodies will help India become the first market in the world where 3 electric three-wheeler will be sold for every 1 ICE three-wheeler. We want to be the market leader in the three-wheeler market, not just in India but the world and the new OSM Megafactory with a capacity of 1 million units is the first step towards this goal.”

Omega Seiki Mobility is planning to enter international markets and has already set up JVs in Bangladesh, Egypt and UAE. Dr Deb Mukherji, MD, Omega Seiki Mobility said, "Today OSM is the first EV company to export Made-in-India three-wheelers to these geographies. We will also set up manufacturing in these countries along with our local partners. OSM has also focused on integrating its product portfolio and is the only company in India to offer three powerpack options – long range, rapid charging and swappable."

The EV company says at present it has an order book of over 50,000 units. It has also introduced last-mile service initiative under its ‘UNOXpress’ brand. The company is currently running its fleet in 20 cities, doing more than 10 lakh kilometre per month. To achieve high scale production of EVs, the company says it has set up JVs with Korean company Jae Sung Tech to manufacture a new range of powertrains. Omega Seiki Mobility is also planning to manufacture in-house motors and battery packs.

"We can do 1 million vehicles only if we have our own motors, powertrains and batteries. We are working towards becoming a fully integrated company in India to have control over the supply chain dynamics of these critical parts fully under our control," added Dr Mukherji.