By Sekhar Seshan. Consulting Editor, Business India

The future of last-mile transportation (LMT) will be driven by the four key tenets of electric, distributed, shared and connected, according to Dr Amitabh Saran, co-founder of Altigreen Propulsion Labs. “Companies that build solutions incorporating these tenets will be front-runners in the transport market,” he says. “Recognising this, Altigreen plans to enable the ecosystem for 100 per cent electric vehicles (EVs), from drivetrain components to differentiated end-customer mobility-per-cent experience.”

The Bengaluru-based start-up, which started life with hybrid engines with an electric kit that works alongside existing internal combustion engines in four-wheelers, has morphed into EVs, beginning with three-wheelers, which it has found to be a $6-billion market opportunity. Saran and his three co-founders, who have 110 years’ combined experience in motors, controls, software and finance, lead a team of 70-plus that includes engineers from various global auto majors, specialising in all the facets of vehicle electrification.

Drivetrains are the ‘heart and brains’ of EVs, comprising as much as 70 per cent of the cost of the vehicle, whether it is a two, three or four-wheeler. Altigreen’s drivetrains for vehicles of varying configurations and payload capacities will enable these and other EVs to be launched at competitive prices in line with the current fossil-fuel market. The company specialises in designing, testing and manufacturing a range of electric drivetrains, including induction motors, clutch-less EV gearboxes and transmissions, power electronics and digital interactive display clusters and IoT ortelematics, with a cloud-based control centre.

Specifically designed for Indian environmental and commercial conditions, its technology helps make EVs that can compete in price and performance with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Using 100 per cent indigenous technology in its drive towards carbon free transportation, Altigreen offers both drivetrains and fully assembled white-labelled three-wheeled EVs to OEMs.