Shedding old clothes, says Greaves Cotton

Greaves Cotton, a diversified engineering company and an engine manufacturer for automobile manufacturers, says it is evolving to address future needs of the vehicle industry.

Expenditure of ~1 billion is being planned over the next 1218 months for a variety of new projects. That would include vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) and electricity. The company is expecting mobility solutions to play a major role in its growth.

It now supplies 400,000 engines a year to original equipment manufacturers. As part of expanding its presence to energy sources other than petrol and diesel, the firm has entered the CNG engine segment in three-wheelers; it is selling 1,000 a month. It has also signed an alliance with Pinnacle Engines for a CNG engine by the BS-VI emission standards timeline (April 2020).

Following the CNG foray, it decided to look at hybrid and electric mobility. It says it has started working with two other partners on powertrain technologies but also on the charging and battery swapping technologies. As part of this, it acquired a stake in Coimbatorebased electric vehicle (EV) entity Ampere, in which Ratan Tata has invested.

Greaves explains there are 200 million people in the country who are looking for affordable mobility.

Future growth

“We are in an exciting phase of transition, where a set diesel engine company is moving to a solutions and services firm,” said Nagesh Basavanahalli, managing director (MD). “The mobility segment is kind of evolved and if you take a look back, from (our) being a diesel engine maker now to being a diesel plus CNG plus petrol plus hybrid/electric, available in both two-wheeler and threewheeler options. And, participating in the next wave of growth as EVs are beginning to take off and provide what we always do, value proposition to that end-consumer in terms of affordable mobility.”

With touch points across the country and a service network (5,000 outlets, it says), Greaves sees synergy with Ampere. And, would look at developing tech such as battery swapping or fast charging. The firm is working on details of a five-year plan in this regard and expects this business to reach ~1 billion annually by then.