How This 2011 Brand is Giving New Dimensions to The Motor Vehicles Industry Electric three wheeler and bike maker Gayam Motor Works (GMW) has developed swappable lithium-ion batteries for rickshaws which can be replaced in less than a minute.

By Baishali Mukherjee

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RAJA GAYAM (32), CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GAYAM MOTOR WORKS

In line with government's ambitious project to turn all vehicles electric by 2030, electric three wheeler and bike maker Gayam Motor Works (GMW) has developed swappable lithium-ion batteries for rickshaws which can be replaced in less than a minute. "Right now we are doing this manually but we have plans to fully automate the service," says Gayam. He launched GMW with brother Rahul Gayam and college-mate Sri Harsha Bavirisetty. The start-up is able to reduce the operational cost by one-seventh for customers like BigBasket using GMW's batteries. "About 50 per cent of the delivery cost for e-commerce players is towards the last mile delivery," he adds. As a social impact, GMW's electric bikes are used for police patrolling as part of the Nirbhaya Act. It is now scaling up the battery swapping stations from 1-2 to 2000 and more across various smart cities to cater to the demands of electric vehicles.

POWERING RISE

LAUNCH: 2011 in Hyderabad

GROWTH: 10x repeat orders

REVENUE: $1m

HEADCOUNT: 35

TOTAL INVESTMENT: $5m from family and friends

NO. OF PATENTS: Multiple IPs in battery design, power electronics, vehicle transmission, vehicle design, swapping model for three wheelers.

Baishali Mukherjee

Former Freelancer

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