Yogesh Gole
Aurangabad, Aug 9: goEgoNetwork, a Pune-based startup, will be manufacturing electric vehicle (EV) chargers at a facility in Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) in the Shendra MIDC, soon.
The company, founded by three engineers Sayantan Chakraborti, Pravin Kumar and Dheeman Kadam, has outsourced the manufacturing to Aurangabad-based BG LI-IN Electricals Ltd, a joint venture between Bagla Group and LI-IN Electricals of Taiwan.
Speaking to Lokmat Times Kadam said, “The goEgo charging technology was originally conceived and initiated by the founders while working for investment banks in the Netherlands. Recently, we have secured 2 million USD in seed funding to expand existing electric charging network. The seed round was raised by Rishi Bagla of the Bagla Group in association with Olivier Guillaumond, Head of Global Innovation Labs and Fintech at ING Bank in the Netherlands. We are already supplying EV chargers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu and are aiming to start manufacturing at AURIC this month.’’
100 workers to be employed
Bagla, who is the chairman and managing director of BG Li-IN, said, “We have invested Rs 50 crore in our Shendra facility and aiming to manufacture 1000 EV chargers per month for goEgo, which has developed the technology and will market products. A 35,000 square feet facility has been built which will be scaled upto 1 lakh square feet. The manufacturing process is mostly automated but nearly 100 workers will be employed, apart from the office staff.”
While the per km cost of travel for the two-wheeler EVs is estimated to be 0.25 paise only and government is providing monetary incentives for turning to the greener transport, lack of infrastructure like charging support remains to be an obstacle. With the charger manufacturing unit, Aurangabad can attempt to develop as a destination in the charging eco-system.
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Chargers for 2 and 3 wheelers
Initially chargers will be manufactured for two and three wheelers. Later, products for cars and private passengers vehicles will also be produced. EV chargers for individuals, office premises and public facilities will be manufactured, Bagla stated.
Charger in housing societies
In a housing society a charger, set up in the parking lot, can be connected simultaneously to 18 vehicles. Software records usage of power by all vehicles and bills accordingly, Kadam informed.