INTERVIEW WITH UDAY NARANG Chairman, Anglian Omega Group & Omega Seiki Mobility

So are the numbers growing slowly?

We had spent an enormous amount of time to make sure that the R&D, the development, the products and the testing were done right. The key point was to make sure that we were not compared to the low end Chinese products or the products that existed in this nation. What we have seen is that the demand continues to grow. We initially limited the number of vehicles we had on the road. We have around 300 odd vehicles that are on the road right now. But from here to the rest of the financial year we believe that we will roll out six to seven thousand of these vehicles. A large amount of vehicles will be going to Africa and to the other parts of the world.

Very briefly, can you take us through some of the MoUs you have signed on the product and technology front, the latest being the one with Valeo?

Right from the beginning we wanted to be the Tesla of the electric cargo business. I know it’s a very bold statement; a lot of people have looked at it and frowned at it. We at OSM believe that we will be a multiple product company. We are an alliance based company. People compare India to China. We need to stop comparing this country to China because it is very different dynamics, it’s a very different way of working, the government works differently. What we have believed is that having alliances with international based companies is extremely important locally as well as internationally. We believe that this is the only way we can build a very big eco system in this country. We have been on a non-stop alliance drive. You may have heard about OSM alliances on a regular weekly basis. We did an alliance with US based C4V (to manufacture solid-state batteries) which is the future of batteries. We did an alliance with multiple partners in powertrains. We did an alliance with Valeo (for electric powertrains). Valeo is a very significant 20 billion Euro company based in France.

What is exciting for a company like us is to be a startup, even though Omega has been around for 52 years. In the electrification we are a start up that is just a few years old. All these European and American companies are willing to sign up with us because they view OSM as a major player in the electrification of this country. We have done a tie up with Log 9 in the area of battery fast charging. It is an amazing thing because while the driver is having his tea or lunch he can very quickly charge the batteries of his electric vehicle and thereby enhance his income. You are going to see us doing some major alliances. This is just the beginning, we will continue many more in the coming months and you will know that OSM is a major brand to reckon with.  

Surprisingly, you have inked a deal with Arjun Maini for the popular DTM races. Now that is something a B2C player does, not really in sync with B2B players. Why?

We are bold, we are dynamic and OSM is about finding solutions. OSM is not India alone, OSM is a global e-cargo company. People should understand that our vision is to build India’s first global electric cargo company. I was hearing a speech by our Minister Nitin Gadkariji and he was talking about how he would like India to be the number one electric car manufacturer in the world. That’s a bold statement but we believe that we are part of that journey. Our aspirations and our dreams are that. Building vehicles, doing these things will make this company a very major player. So this is where Arjun Maini comes in. He is bold, he is what we call rocket Maini, he is somebody who is young and one who takes up challenges. And the best thing about Arjun Maini that I love is that Arjun Maini never gives up. We at OSM never give up. It was an alignment. We also believed that we want to put our brand awareness across Europe and the US and what best than to have it in DTM and we also believe that we want to be the future of electric racing. The three wheelers are just a taster. We are growing into two wheelers and four wheelers.   

Are you really serious about getting into the electric 2 and 4 wheeler space?

In England we say the proof is in the pudding (a new twist to the very old proverb- proof of the pudding is in the eating). The two wheelers come out in July or early August. You will also get to see my first prototype of my four-wheeler.  What people are showing today is retrofitting. Retrofitting is not building electric vehicles. Many of my competitors are doing that. We believe that is not the right strategy. When we talk of electrification we talk of 100 per cent electrification. Retrofitting is easy. We are not in this journey to make quick money, we are in this journey because of fitness, we believe in running a marathon. And we are going to run a marathon.

Getting into the areas as you mentioned above, will require a lot of hard work, especially on the R&D front, so are you prepared for that?

We call ourselves a company with technology in motion. R&D is the key to our company. I have just built a state of the art facility in Faridabad in one of our facilities which will house 50 new engineers. We are going to set up an R&D facility in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We are opening up an R&D centre in Europe. The formal announcements will come in the next two months. We are working with European OEMs to build vehicles in Europe with them and they will be building buses with us here. We will be building factories across this nation. At this moment we are building factory number two in Haryana as we speak and hopefully in six months ti would be up and running. We will be putting up factories in the South, in the North and in the West. We have purchased 106 acres in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh where we would be possibly putting up a bus factory with a European OEM.

We will be building factories in Africa with local partners. My belief is that Africa is a huge continent which has great opportunities. What we are all forgetting is that is all about environment and the other key part is the rising fuel costs. In this scenario, electric makes sense and battery prices too are going down. Electric is the future. A lot of competitors will come, we welcome Ola, we welcome Ather, they are amazing companies, we want to be an amazing company too. India and the world is big enough that can accommodate many players and we claim to be one of the players too.

Since you have said you are getting into the electric two-wheeler space, is there not a lot of competition there with players like Hero Electric, Okinawa, Ather and Ola and many others? How will you fight the big names there, besides a lot of cheap Chinese imports? 

We have calculated our space. We are not just focusing on electric two wheelers but even e three wheelers and four wheelers. We are talking about building buses, tractors, etc. Our scale is going to be quite large. In the B2B space we are going to focus on the last mile delivery segment. In the two wheeler space, we will sell to B2C but our major products will go to B2B. We believe that we are a cargo company.  We will do certain products that will be B2C. Our product portfolio should have everything.

The B2B players can make a choice whether they want a three wheeler, a two-wheeler or a four-wheeler. What do they have today? Their cost of operation is 70 per cent. If we can manage and give them efficiency there, their profitability increases substantially. If we substitute oil to electricity, their costs go down. Today in our country we are only focusing on B2B e-commerce players. I cannot tell you how many non-ecommerce players are coming to us for electric vehicles.

I will give you an example, we are into steel business and we are running this steel company for the last 52 years. We are the largest steel processing companies nationally. We have started using these vehicles within our factories. The costs have gone down significantly.

In India the most important part should be the environment but people are not so much concerned about the environment, rather they are concerned about their pockets. We will improve the pocketbook as well as the environment. I am into fitness, I am an athlete, I compete every day, let the best man or woman, whether it be Ather or whether it be Hero or whether it be Ola, they build a better product, they win, we should be ready for competition. One thing is for sure, OSM isn’t going away.

In the four-wheeler space too there is a lot of competition, especially from very big companies. How do you hope to take on that competition?

If you recall Elon Musk build a company and today the value of his company is more than the combined valuation of all the old IC engine companies. The new world is not about IC engines. The structure is completely new. The people who build the IC engine world are not the same who will build the electric world. Just because someone is good in the IC engine space will be also successful in the electric vehicle space. They will move and they have the firepower. But people like us are quick, we are agile, we are new brand, new quality.

I am into boxing and Muhammad Ali is one of my biggest idols. I always look up to him. He did not come from the richest family. He was hungry. But in a world where there are new young men and women who have joined us, we will need capital. I have spent 35 years working in the financial markets of US and Europe. We will go to the private equity market and we will go for alliances. At this moment we are very close to finalising an agreement with a very large European OEM that will work with us in producing 3 wheelers for Europe and exports out of there. And we shall be producing electric buses with them here in the country.

The question is how come a small company like OSM out of nowhere has got a product out there. These companies are valued at Rs 1 lakh crore in the stock market, but it’s not about the stock market, it about the product, it’s about the design and technology, and it is about believing in yourself. Coming back to Arjun Maini, why did we pick him up, because we don’t give up.  Like the boxer, you put us down, we’ll come back. For me, this is not just OSM, it’s a mission to be part of this electric revolution in the country. We have to improve the quality of life of the future generation because this pollution will kill us all. If we don’t change it, we will all be in the hospitals.

I want to take electric to every village in India. This government is very pro electric, you have to give them credit whether it is the FAME subsidy or the support given. Today all our states are aligned towards electric vehicles. I have been seeing tenders of several thousand e-vehicles. Take for example the garbage sector, no one is talking about this sector. I have just bid for a tender for electric vehicles in Andhra Pradesh for electric garbage vehicles. There is enough demand for electric vehicles going on in this country and OSM will not only change part of this country but also be in Africa, Bangladesh, Latin America, etc. We have got a lot of work to do, I am ready for it and I am energised for it.

How much time do you think you will take to realise some of your dreams pertaining to OSM?

These days, 24 hours a day is not enough. There is not a single day that I am not living this with my team. If we are not a major player in the next three years, then it’s too late. We have a huge amount of work, I will be hiring a lot of smart people, I want a lot of young blood with me, men and women. I want people to be part of this journey. For me, my biggest pay off will be that the people who work here do so well that they go out and build new companies to make a better India, to make a clean India and to make a more electric India. In the next three years we have to be a force to reckon with.