InnerCircle: 'Multiple products, platform-based design key factors for viability for EV startups': Aditya Puppala, Co-founder & CTO, Speedloop Auto

Multiple product strategies, platform-based design, and horizontal integration are the three key factors that could help new-age electric commercial vehicle companies ensure viability, according to Speedloop Auto Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Aditya Puppala. Speedloop Auto is a four-year-old startup founded by Puppala and Gayatri Jadhav with a mission to bring clean and affordable mass mobility solutions to the market, at a time when large legacy automakers are looking to aggressively get into the electrification game.

With the scale being sub-optimal in the beginning, Puppala noted that having more than one product could help the companies reach a wider range of customers and support the scale. “We cannot afford to be a one-product company or bet everything on one product only. We have to diversify at the launch itself,” he said. Another point that Puppala believes can help companies in ensuring viability is a platform-based design approach for products. The design can be common across the models, with minor variations. “In some cases, major variations will happen in the power train and minor variations elsewhere,” he said.

“The third one is to be more horizontally integrated. especially in this segment. That is, rely on experts or best in class for hard technology,” Puppala added.

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