Aiming to redefine global electric mobility and make it synonymous with convenience, comfort, design supremacy, and affordability, Zen Mobility designs, engineers, and manufactures custom Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs).
Meeting Namit Jain, Founder of Zen Mobility on the grounds of EV India 2023, Aishwarya had an interesting conversation with the CEO on how Zen’s Micropod is changing the last-mile delivery ecosystem in India.
Tell me about the product you are showcasing today in EV India 2023 and which segments it is catering to.
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As an EV solution provider, Zen Mobility designs and develops products for last-mile delivery. Nowadays, for every type of delivery, two-wheelers are being used wherein these riders typically carry 30–50 kg of load on their backs, which is neither the safest way to deliver goods nor its efficiency.
Aimed to help these lakhs of riders roaming around every day with this kind of load, we planned to build something that solves this problem and build a more robust vehicle wherein packages can be kept nicely and safely in the box behind. Our product primarily caters to last-mile delivery and typically the B2B market. It will also help to increase the productivity as one Zen Micro Pod can carry a payload of up to 150 Kgs
What differentiates the Zen Mobility products and when is MaxiPod going to release?
Maxipod is going to be a big launch. It is under development. We have recently launched Zen Micro Pod (EV-3W) and have received a phenomenal response on the product. Having a background in the auto component segment, we have been working in this industry for the past 40 years and are a part of the NTF group, which is an auto component supplier.
Experienced in the manufacturing segment, we wanted to take our time to enter the market to understand it thoroughly as the market is expanding rapidly. In the next 10–20 years, India is going to boom anyway. We will take our time for product development, testing, trials etc. and then come out with the Maxipod by next year in order to launch a promising product as per the market requirement.
The technology used in the development of Micropod is essentially different as we have patented its drivetrain technology, and being a customized technology, it will also improve the efficiency of the vehicle. As the quality of the vehicle is very lightweight, we have used lightweight composites like carbon fiber, etc. Hence, providing us with better efficiency and range going forward.
Where did you get the inspiration for this unique design?
I stayed in Germany for 6 years, where I completed my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Automobile Engineering, we did a project with my University Master’s thesis with DHL and built an EV for them.
That’s when the idea started taking root in designing something completely different. Our product comes somewhere in between a typical three-wheeler auto and a two-wheeler. After returning to India, we immediately started working on it. The key idea was to show and prove to the world that a good design does not need to be expensive. If it’s well-engineered, it can still be cost-effective and can still be new.
Kindly state your views on the EV manufacturing scenario and the challenges this ecosystem is facing in India.
In India, technology and manufacturing are very strong. But what India currently needs is to have a facility with high-quality manufacturing and operations. The work has already started in India and we are already more than halfway there. In the coming years, it will only get better as with rising customer base expectations, manufacturing capability also has to go up.
Talking about exports, the G20 summit has already happened, and starting soon, India is going to increase exports in the future. Zen Mobility has also started garnering a lot of interest from Europe, Japan, Korea and other global companies.
The reason behind this lay in the perception that one can not only find good value but also good quality products from India. India will stand on a global stage of competing in the next 5–6 years.
Any future expansion plans or dealership showroom launches we can expect soon?
We are actively focused on expanding our production. Currently, we have a capacity of 10,000 units and will be setting up a larger plant with a capacity of 50,000 units that will come up early next year. In terms of dealerships, we have tied up with 3 dealerships in Delhi and Gurgaon and are soon going to expand in Bangalore, Pune and other areas.
