Pinnacle Industries subsidiary EKA Mobility has received the Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) certification from the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) for its 2.5-tonne GVM electric light commercial vehicle. K V R K Prasad, Director, CIRT, handed over the CMVR certification to the company's research, design and homologation team.
EKA Mobility is the first company to offer an electric pickup truck in the 2.5-tonne GVM category in the India market. A CMVR certification signifies that the company has completed all functional and safety testing and approvals required for sales and trials to begin in the coming months. Production of the e-LCV is expected to begin in Pune this month and the first lots will be rolled out to select customers early next year.
Speaking at the occasion, Sudhir Mehta, Founder and Chairman, EKA said, “The completion of our e-LCV’s homologation is a truly monumental achievement by the whole team in such a short span of time. It strengthens our commitment to making the first-time-right product from scratch in India, for India and the global market. We have a lot of excitement and expectations from our customers for EKA’s e-LCV and the unique value addition it provides them. With the lowest total cost of ownership, unrivalled design and user experience, we are confident that our product will revolutionise the last-mile delivery segment and accelerate our nation’s transition to zero-emission vehicles.”
“This segment is likely to reach close to 1,00,000 numbers over the next five years. We are planning to push the initial lot by the end of Jan 2023 to a select few customers for initial feedback, and performance tracking and will eventually ramp up the production over the next couple of months. Major thrust on e-LCV sales will be from mid of 2023, with a completely ‘Made in India’ product from a state-of-the-art smart lean manufacturing unit” further added B Anil Baliga, President, EKA.