President will withdraw from Ampere’s lithium-ion charger in New Delhi today

New Delhi: In May last year, when the President of India introduced a lead-acid battery charger, the Ampere Vehicles, an electric car company based in Coimbatore, caused a stir.

In May of this year, the company further increased the scale of the game. The president is launching on Friday, and the ampere lithium ion charger is priced at 3,000 rupees.

In addition, it's two scooters, the V48 lithium cost rupee 38,000 Rio lithium price of 46,000 rupees, equipped with lithium-ion batteries , will also be launched. The government subsidy benefits are Rs 7,500.

Electric motorcycles and lithium battery chargers will take advantage of the market potential with huge market potential. Once all vehicles turn to electricity by 2030 and lack sufficient charging infrastructure, these market potentials will be open.

Hemalatha Annamalai, founder and CEO of Ampere Vehicles, told ET Auto that as early as last year, the early lead-acid chargers were completely localized internally and commercialized on all vehicles.

“We sell it to other OEMS, distributors and spare parts distributors. We are also negotiating with larger OEMS who are currently importing it,” Annanamai added.

With the experience of the last charger, Ampere vehicles have been converted to lithium ion chargers. In 2009-10, the company introduced a lithium-electric foldable cycle. But at the time, the lithium ion product market was still in its infancy and expensive. Therefore, the lithium battery charger did not see the light of the day.

But now the government supports electric vehicles to reduce pollution, especially with the support of Delhi NCR, it is now boosted, feeling that this is the right time to bring the latest products to market.

“Since 2008, we have not stopped developing because our company has a dedicated power electronics team, so we have acquired advanced technology from India.

We have a core team of six experienced power electronics designers, but the overall R&D team consists of 35 members,” said Annamalai. She points out that lithium-ion batteries are light and weigh about 7-8 kg. Compared with a lead-acid battery weighing 35 kg, its advantages are more obvious. Therefore, it takes about 3-4 hours to charge for a fully charged battery and 8-10 hours for a lead-acid battery. In the first hour, it may incur up to 80% of the cost.

The main feature of the ampere lithium battery charger is its automatic cut-off function, which automatically turns off after the battery is charged, thus avoiding any damage. It has over-temperature protection and can be turned off at high temperatures to protect the battery. The lithium-ion charger will begin sales in mid-May and will be produced at the company's Coimbatore plant, which currently has an annual production capacity of 100,000 units.

Lead acid and lithium ion chargers will coexist here. So far, Ampere has spent about Rs 700 crore on developing various electric vehicle components such as chargers, DC-DC converters, motors and lithium-ion batteries. It has received technical and monetary support from the Technology Development Board (TDP) to guide entrepreneurs and emerging entrepreneurs in the development of technology products.

ET Auto said in a conversation with the TDB Technology Minister that it has provided 50% of financing assistance to Ampere or 350 million rupees to four components in the form of a soft loan. The loan can be repaid at a 4.5% interest rate over a five-year period.

She stated that the lithium-ion battery charger contains 80% of the local components and can be used to charge vehicles in the 80-100 km range. The next generation charger will require a drive range of 150-200 km. In addition, Ampere is developing a lithium-ion battery that will be completed and will be launched within six months.

Currently, Ampere has sold about 55,000 electric scooters since 2008, but optimistic about the charger can be sold through its 150 dealers, sales will be boosted. The company's goal is a 70% lead acid charger and a portfolio of the remaining 30% lithium charger.

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