Indian incubation and investment platform, AIC (Atal Incubation Centre)-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum has introduced the AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge.
The forum is supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Ministry of MSME, and Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt. of India.
This one-of-a-kind EV challenge is envisioned at encouraging startups from across the country working in the EV charging infrastructure, EV products, components, EV-related service and solutions space to work on the challenges faced by the electric vehicle (EV) industry and come up with innovative resolutions.
Nominations for AIC-Pinnacle EV Challenge will remain open till 28th February 2023.
Startups offering specialized groundbreaking and potentially scalable solutions in one or multiple domains of challenges faced by the EV industry can apply.
Speaking on the announcement, Sudhir Mehta, Founder, AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum, and Chairman of Pinnacle Industries & EKA said, “We are excited to launch the AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge and provide a platform for startups to work on the challenges faced by the EV industry. With this EV Challenge, we aim to discover promising products, technology, and startups, explore commercial opportunities, and encourage the implementation of solutions and innovation in the EV sector. While the electric vehicle industry in India is growing vigorously, it is concurrently posed with a diverse set of challenges. We firmly believe that startups in our country possess a huge potential, talent, and futuristic vision and have an enormous ability to play a significant role in addressing the challenges the EV industry faces. They deeply understand the ground-level problems of the EV Industry and are highly driven to come up with innovative-scalable ideas and solutions that contribute largely to our country’s sustainability goals. We are positive that this challenge will inspire and support startups to come up with innovative solutions that will shape the future of the EV industry.”
The forum plans to facilitate the winning startups with cash prizes, product development support, and manufacturing partnerships with the EV industry.
The first winner will be awarded a cash prize of INR 2,00,000, the second winner will receive a cash prize of INR 1,50,000, followed by a prize of INR 1,00,000 to the third winner of the challenge.
In addition, the startups shall be provided incubation support, mentoring, co-working space, lab space, IP and legal support, funding support, networking support, etc by AIC-Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum. The startups, if deemed fit, will also be provided support in the commercialization of the products.
The primary areas of conundrum are challenges related to the product, cost, Infrastructure, service, supply chain, investments, skilled manpower, the transition of ICE to EV, vehicle-to-grid integration, and any other latent issues. Only registered startups will be eligible for consideration and must apply on the official application website up to 28th February 2023. Winners will be announced in the first week of March on AIC-Pinnacle’s official website.
The EV Challenge conceptualized & organized by AIC -Pinnacle Entrepreneurship Forum will serve as a proving ground for future automotive engineers and organizations.
The AIC – Pinnacle EV Challenge will be conducted in two stages.
The first stage will involve a selection process based on the applications received, and selected startups will have the opportunity to work on their ideas with support from industry experts.
The second stage will involve a pitch session, where selected startups will present their solutions to a panel of judges, who will select the winning startups.