EP 37 | Rediscovering Sustainable Last Mile Logistics | Fyn

Charge times, battery safety, and affordability are crucial - big obstacles that hinder the faster adoption of electric vehicles globally.

In this episode, we engage with a remarkable company in India that is endeavoring to address these challenges in a unique way.

Today, we speak with Dr. Akshay Singhal, Founder, and CEO of Log 9 Materials, who holds an honors degree in materials engineering from IIT Roorkee and is also a Forbes under 30 Asia honoree. Log 9 was founded in 2015, and in this time, it has amassed 35 industry-defining patents that attest to the organization's first-principle thinking. Log 9 Materials is able to offer batteries that can be charged nine times faster, last nine times longer, and offer nine times higher performance and safety. This is a fun one!

Today, we speak with Sheetanshu Tyagi, co-founder of Emo Energy. Emo has developed Zen, a battery tech platform for net-zero solutions, boasting 100% fire safety, a swift 20-minute charge, and 120% extended battery life. Sheetanshu has a decade of expertise in the mobility sector, including roles with major OEMs like Rivian, Ather, and Ola, and is dedicated to creating a sustainable transport system for cleaner cities.

As countries around the world rapidly accelerate their transition to clean energy and clean mobility, amidst all the celebrations of zero emissions, we persistently ask a set of uncomfortable questions.

What would happen if all vehicles transitioned to electric? Can the grids in different countries handle such a massive shift? And will wait times for access to charges, and then to charge, become the norm?

Today, we speak to a company addressing both of these challenges. In this episode, we turn our focus to Europe as we interview the CEO of an intriguing charge point operations company that originated in Italy but now operates across Europe. Joining us is Luca Fontanelli, CEO at E-GAP.

Apart from causing a lot of traffic, commercial trucks play a very key role in running everyday life in India. However, over the years, these internal combustion engine (ICE) trucks have been major contributors to environmental pollution. Addressing this particular issue today, we have Rohan Shravan, the CEO at Tresa Motors—one of the few companies that is actively building intellectual property (IP) in India, and that too in a space largely dominated by legacy players. This is going to be a fun conversation. Rohan, welcome to the program.

Hydrogen is considered an energy source for mobility worldwide. However, it's essential to note that green hydrogen derives from solar, wind, or hydro power energy sources. It goes beyond just mobility and plays a crucial role in the energy transition by decarbonizing large manufacturing processes, particularly in industries like steel, cement, and paper that rely on gas for their furnaces. Additionally, hydrogen can contribute to achieving energy independence, especially for countries like India. Today, we are speaking with Siddharth Mayur, the founder and CEO of H2e Power, India's first green energy electrolyser and fuel cell company with operations in India, Germany, and the USA

On this show, we typically speak to protagonists who are making policy decisions, regulatory decisions, manufacturing cars, or running a power grid. Sometimes, they are involved in battery production or various aspects of the clean mobility value chain. Every now and then, we have the privilege to speak with super users of electric vehicles to discuss problems, challenges, opportunities, comparisons, and the joys of driving electric vehicles. Today, this is one of those special shows. We are speaking with Manish Jain. Manish co-founded Shadi.com and later, even M Profit, names that are almost synonymous with anyone in the tech space. Manish shares his experience of driving a Tesla Model S Plaid and how he came about to own a KIA EV6. Tune in today!  

On the show, we rarely have the same guest visit twice. Today, we talk to a very special person who's coming on the show for the third time: none other than Vasudha Madhavan, CEO & Founder at Ostara Advisors. She is an investment banker who helps facilitate investments as well as M&A transactions in the Electric Vehicle Space. In this special episode, we talk about the Funding Winter, major deals this year from January to August, the categories that are doing well, and much more.

The motorcycling spirit is a passion that runs deep. It's a love for the open road and the freedom it brings. It's the feeling of the wind against your skin and the rush of adrenaline in your heart. So, what would happen when a hardcore biker desires to challenge the age-old industry and aspires to build one of the most impressive motorcycles to come out of India? Today, we speak with Ranjita Ravi, the co-founder and CEO at Orxa Energies, who is building Mantis, an all-electric performance bike, and much more. You don't want to miss this one. 

The EV revolution that we are witnessing globally right now has demonstrated that legacy players have been repeatedly caught off guard as new technologies were adopted earlier than they had anticipated. Whilst General Motors and Ford were sleeping, Tesla changed how people drive in America. Legacy car makers globally, even the super green European ones, had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the clean mobility era, more than 10 years after Tesla launched their first commercial car.

In most sub-sectors within the clean mobility sector, the same pattern is evident as well. Legacy lead-acid battery makers stood on the sidelines as CATL, Panasonic, and a myriad of other small startup companies led the race in lithium-ion battery adoption globally. Typically, legacy players have waited because they did not understand the technology and decided to move only when new technology started to become a threat to their existing business.

But in this brave new world, that might be just waiting too long and being caught in the pincers of a Kodak or a Xerox moment. In this episode, we deep dive into the battery sector to understand why this pattern of legacy players taking their time keeps repeating itself. We speak to one of the big daddies of the battery world in India, who also dominates their sector in many of the countries they export to, and who, unlike most legacy players, is moving fast to learn, adopt, and dominate the new technology wins that are raging across their business.

Today, we welcome the Executive Director of Amara Raja Batteries, Vikramadithya Gourineni, on this deep-dive journey.

In this episode, we hit the road and have a conversation with Visakh Sasikumar, an entrepreneur who co-founded Fyn, a startup  focused on end-to-end micro-electric mobility. Their approach involves leveraging data to enhance productivity during the last mile of delivery. Visakh, an alumnus of IIT Madras, envisions making last-mile zero-emission mobility more efficient through complete digitization. By blending technology with execution, he aims to facilitate rapid scale-up. Currently, he is actively involved in building India's largest vertically integrated electric vehicle ecosystem platform, catering to both last-mile logistics and commute applications.

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