Following A Farm-To-Fork Strategy With Our EVs: Uday Narang, Chairman, OSM

Avishek Banerjee Dec 24, 2020

Former NRI Uday Narang was successfully running a hedge fund outfit in the United States for three decades. However, he chose to head back to India and look for means to redefine sustainable mobility here. He eventually floated Omega Seiki Mobility (OSM) Pvt. Ltd, which he believes will disrupt the Indian mobility landscape with groundbreaking but affordable electric vehicles. While interacting exclusively with BW Businessworld, the Chairman of OSM reveals that the company will adopt a farm-to-fork strategy with its product lines. Below are the edited excerpts:

What really motivated you to come back to India?

I believe that I have done very well at a very young age and working in Europe or America couldn’t encourage me to forget my own country and settle abroad. I can be in Thailand or Switzerland where the AQI is below 30 but I always wanted to come back to my motherland and achieve something here only. I always wanted to do something remarkable and wanted to experience that 10-15 years from now what all I have done will make a difference. I am not an environmentalist or not trying to enter in politics in the coming years. I wanted to change the face of this country with electric mobility solutions. I want to tell you that I am a big fan of Mohammad Ali, who once said “If you knock me down, I will come back”. If I lose, I will stand again with Plan B and put my all investment in making it successful. My whole R&D team, all the youngsters work for more than 10 hours a day and I don’t want to let them down. We, at Omega Seiki are working as a team and guiding each other at every level to make India energy efficient and technology efficient in terms of EV advancement.

As you are aware, India is a power deficit nation and many in the countryside don’t even have access to basic electricity connection. How will you be then able to run your EVs in such areas?

We are planning to go solar for resolving this issue. Targeting the smaller villages, our e-rikshaws and other vehicles will be having solar panels on their roof. The L-3 category vehicles will consist of solar panels on the top that will be increasing the travelling capacity even more because there is no shortage of solar energy in the country. We are coming up with a product consisting of swappable batteries which can go upto 150 kms and the solar panel increases the mileage more by continuously providing the energy to the vehicle in the daytime. I am working with certain companies to build the right ecosystem in tier-2 & tier-3 cities.

Are you also setting up solar charging infrastructure? If yes, will your competitors will able to use it as well?

I believe that more the players in the race, better the ecosystem it is for us. Our all vehicles, B2B & B2C are equipped with all the latest innovations we are achieving in terms of battery. We are not worried about competitors but we want to challenge China and build something disruptive to amaze the world with our technology. We are building an ecosystem to alter the nation’s scenario. We are bringing together different brains across the globe to build an ideal ecosystem in the nation. I will showcase the solar-powered vehicles in January (2021) with the launch of my cargo vehicles and two-wheelers. We are also partnering with industry experts to showcase our technology. (Vaccine makers like) AstraZeneca requires 2-8 degrees temperature whereas Moderna needs -70 degrees. I am working with refrigeration players to install certain equipment freezers on our cargo trucks so that we could help in transporting the vaccines across the country in near future.

How much do you think the Government is supporting the cause?

I must say the government has initiated the step in the right direction. I believe we need to walk the talk not only talk the walk. PM Shri Narendra Modi and Minister of Road Transport & Highways Shri Nitin Gadkari have come up with a good number of initiatives to support the electrification (movement) in the country. The incentives provided by Delhi’s CM Mr. Arvind Kejriwal is another positive sign in supporting EV business in the country. The Telangana government issued the beneficiary policies too. Of course, the Government needs to do more and support the companies like us to excel in this race. They need to give ecosystem and subsidies to the companies like us who are investing in this place. The point is that we are expecting the Central government, state governments to do more for us.

Will the transformation towards green mobility lead to creation or loss of jobs?

Corona has already changed the way we work. I follow a famous saying, “Change with the time or time will change you”. We, as a country and the people, need to continuously upgrade ourselves. We always need more skilled and dedicated staff, whether its health workers or factory workers. The job reclassification has to happen. Everybody is learning and evolving and I believe the technology is going to change us all.

Will you be restricting yourself to Lithium-ion batteries when it comes to powering your vehicles?

We are in words with the Ambassador of Luxembourg to list our company on Luxembourg stock exchange. Luxemburg is the centre of all green energy. We are not in favour of doing business with China. We are working with American companies. We have set up the plant in Karnataka for R&D on alternate batteries. The battery of the future will be the mixture of hydrogen, graphite, etc. It will be a combination of something which we all will be accessing for a longer run.

How upbeat are you about connected vehicles?

I believe the technology we are offering is connecting the vehicle to your body. The music you will listen to or the geographic location you will be travelling (towards) while sitting in the vehicle, everything will become part of your life. Our Smart EV will be monitoring everything precisely and will help you make the decisions accordingly. It will be guiding you about your phone, destination, maintenance, repair, etc. The new generation is technology-savvy and would want something unique in the products. It will surely become part of our life. I believe that, in the next five years, you will see a different automobile & logistics business in the country touching exceptional heights.

Can India will be a manufacturing hub of batteries in future?

Yes, I believe so and we are crying out loud in front of companies to come to India and establish their plants here. We are in talks with Panasonic regarding the same. I am willing to give people my vehicles on a lease basis if they are willing to do so. We have invested (Rs.) 50 crore by now and are willing to go up by (Rs.) 200 crore and I need more than (Rs.) 1,000 crore to make my dream come true. In 2021, we want to produce 10,000 two-wheelers and 10,000 three-wheelers.

So, in your view, what is the future of mobility?

The combined valuation of GM, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, Renault and Volkswagen is less than the valuation of Tesla. In three or four years, the battery cost will go down and I am one hundred percent sure that everybody is going to hear this in the near future. For instance, when I was in America in 1995 and we used to carry big boxes of phones and calls from America to New Delhi used to cost me (US)$3 a minute. Today in the era of smartphones, the cost of the one phone call is going down. So if corona vaccination cost is 1$ and I’m promising you (that) everybody will spend 100$ on the EV battery and this whole world will change. Once the battery cost will go down half the game is over because then I can provide you a vehicle at the same price with ICE (Internal Combustion) engine with a battery at the same price as petrol.

If I was (heading) Toyota, Mercedes or any other big brand, I would have invested billions of dollars in R&D of cheaper battery alternatives. But the companies are not doing so because they will ruin their existing business model in this way. The other factor in favour of electrification is the environment (conservation) (as) mother earth is crying out loud. The AQI in Delhi is 400 which is a serious matter of concern. I believe there is a crack in the dam and it will explode for sure. I believe that we have an opportunity to serve the planet with the unique vehicles and technology for societal betterment. We are following a Farm-to-fork strategy. I am learning from Elon Musk (Tesla Founder). We will be helping B2B players like Amazon to deliver their packages and provide them accurate vehicles according to the need and demand. We will give them the option to optimize their portfolio because the logistic cost is 60-70% and I will be helping them in reducing it.

You said you admire Elon Musk and he prefers to outsource his technology. When will Omega Seiki do so?

We are planning about it and will do so in a couple of years. The one thing that matters for it is the scale. We would love to expand our roots globally. We are in talks with private equity and higher-level angel investors. By 2022, we should be doing that with global OEMs. I am a big believer in the younger generation (as) they like to do crazy things and that's what the future is exactly. The future is technology. OSM today is making bigger and bolder moves than established OEMs because we don’t have any legacy or five billion dollars invested in IC engines. I am clean and an underdog. I can be like Elon. I am totally following Elon on the journey and evolving myself in accordance to the trend.