Intending to support India in faster adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) by leveraging entrepreneurial energy of start-up backed by industry leaders, Lithium-ion EV battery maker Grinntech has transformed into a commercial enterprise.

As part of this evolution, the company has attracted industry leaders such as Dr V Sumantran (former Vice- Chairman of Ashok Leyland) and Lakshmi Narayanan (co-founder and former Vice-Chairman of Cognizant) as investors and to serve on the company’s Board of Directors. Besides, K S Manian of Radiance Group and Ucal invested in this company. The company has received about USD2 million from these investors.

Along with a new logo, Grinntech has also unveiled a range of high-tech batteries with unique designs customised to Indian conditions and its proprietary, IoT-enabled BMS to power 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and tractors/light vehicles.

Grinntech’s journey catalysed with the fundamental truth that the Indian automotive industry’s future is EVs, and India should be self-reliant in EV technologies.

In 2013, Nikhilesh Mishra and Puneet Jain - the two young engineers came together with a passion for making EV industry indigenous. Began with developing the battery swapping model for Tata Ace where interchanging of batteries performed in less than two minutes without any automation, the duo sharpened their focus on 12kW EV conversion kit for the same vehicle. Over 20,000km of field trials conducted to validate the system.

The break-through came with being absorbed at the incubation centre in IIT Madras Research Park in 2017, where they mentored by a leading scientist - Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala. This period saw the development of lithium-ion batteries for two/three-wheelrs and electric buses. It also gave the company to licence the technology to a few battery manufacturers, including Exide, Amara Raja, Exicom and Cygni. During the last three years, the company generated close to USD1 million, which was ploughed back in research and development. Today, over 80 percent of the staff in the company is involved in its research and development.

After evolving from a pure R & D firm to a manufacturing company, Grinntech is now pushing itself to the operational phase with a modular production system, paying particular attention to cell-characterisation and pack testing. In addition to its new R&D and manufacturing facility in Chennai, the company is exploring a couple of options for a larger manufacturing location to scale up its production capacity.

The new facility will manufacture Robin-72 and Shikhra smart and personalised 2- and 3-wheeler battery solutions using state-of-the-art automated processes and assembly lines. The facility will also manufacture Pintail, an IoT-enabled 2-wheeler starter battery and the Falcon, a larger battery suited to tractors and light vehicles. The modular production layout will allow for easy scaling up as demand grows.

Robin 72 not only provides energy to the vehicle but also makes it smart and personalised. Designed with its patented technology (developed with Qualcomm), it is 7.5 times more capable than an average BMS - battery management system. It makes it most suited for varied EV applications like ride-sharing, delivery services, battery swapping, and personal use vehicles. The battery will last up to five years and it gets up to 80 percent of charge in 40 minutes.

Shikra reduces downtime significantly, thus ensuring better earning opportunities for drivers. Designed with quality materials, it offers segment-best durability, reliability, and longevity. It assures more than 99 percent availability of battery energy. The battery will last for four years and it can get 80 percent of charge in about two hours.

Falcon (96V) is oriented to light-vehicles, including cars, LCVs and light tractors/industrial equipment, and optimised for long-life operation.

Designed, according to JIS standard, Pintail is suitable for IoT enabled petrol 2-wheelers with continuous current draw. The battery offers reliability and life to balance between high current for cranking and long life for the constant current consumption. CAN communication adds smartness and fast charging makes it most suitable for ride-sharing vehicles. The battery can get 80 percent of charge in an hour; it has a life of up to three years.

For all the batteries, the company offers variants with customisable features according to the requirements.

Grinntech works closely with leading global technology companies and cell suppliers, bringing cutting-edge advances in semiconductors, materials, cell-chemistry and formats.”It was always our dream to create a technologically advanced lithium-ion battery product-line built-to-cost for Indian conditions and its production system. We are hopeful that we will catch the fast-growing wave for EV products by Indian customers,” the company founders said.

Mishra said, “When a technology stalwart like Lakshmi Narayanan and a visionary of mobility like Dr Sumantran join hands, I expect nothing less than building up Grinntech’s battery development and manufacturing capabilities to a position of industry leadership. Apart from affordable, high-quality batteries that employ customisable and superior thermal management, we anticipate EV makers and customers will soon require additional capabilities like battery performance analytics and connectivity. With our innovative product range and sophisticated IoT-enabled BMS systems, we are ready for this future.”

Dr Sumantran said, “I am delighted to be a part of Grinntech’s journey when EVs are rapidly gaining acceptance globally and in India, and particularly so at a time when our country has articulated a priority for self-reliance in critical EV technologies. Market conditions will reward those EV battery makers that possess technological and operational competence in the coming years. Grinntech’s combination of performance, quality and economics will play an important part in that journey.”

Narayanan said, “The future of energy is in renewables with significant potential for high growth. Digital technologies such as IoT and data analytics play a crucial role in enabling companies with newer business models to provide much-needed connectedness, high performance and superior customer experience. It is heartening to see start-ups in India boldly embrace technology-driven solutions that can meaningfully address not just India’s challenges but also global ones.”

Off late, Grinntech has been getting inquiries for the supply of batteries to global clients. The anticipated growth of products like E-powered micro-cars, e-bikes, and a range of electrified mobility vehicles in the post-COVID world offers encouraging prospects for companies like Grinntech that possess proprietary technology, a low-cost base, and high-quality products. MT

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

Coretura, a 50:50 joint venture between Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, has entered into an engineering agreement with Accenture to accelerate the development of a software platform for commercial vehicles.

The company, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, currently employs over 100 engineers. It continues to recruit specialists in system architecture, high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure to support its roadmap, which targets the delivery of its first commercialised products towards the end of the decade.

Coretura intends to create a single software platform, language and standard for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty transport vehicles. The platform is designed to support vehicle lifecycles of more than 15 years, moving the industry away from projects that require custom software development for each new vehicle.

As the engineering partner, Accenture will support development across several areas, including:

• Electrical and Electronic (E/E) architecture
• Software abstraction and hardware integration
• Embedded software, middleware, and cybersecurity
• Functional safety and cloud infrastructure

The platform aims to provide a reusable software stack to lower costs and standardise time-to-market for global manufacturers. For fleet operators, the system is designed to allow for continuous software updates and performance upgrades delivered over the air.

Johan Lunden, CEO, Coretura, said, “Our purpose is to advance mobility at the speed of ideas, and that takes depth. Building a full-stack SDV platform demands expertise across embedded software, middleware, cybersecurity, and functional safety, all designed for vehicles with lifecycles measured in decades. Accenture’s reinvention capabilities let us move faster without compromising the standards our customers depend on. This is acceleration, not course correction.”

Rainer Oder, SDV Embedded Software Lead, Accenture, added, “Helping the industry advance software-defined vehicles is a priority for Accenture. Our landmark collaboration with Coretura is designed to change embedded software engineering for automotive platforms. Together, we are looking to solve the challenges of a fully software-defined architecture – addressing critical areas such as hardware abstraction, API management and AI-based engineering optimisations.”

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

The ePlane Company has announced the completion of its full-scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the e200X. Designated PT-01, the prototype has successfully integrated all core subsystems into a single structure, marking the transition from design and simulation to physical testing.

The e200X is designed as a single airframe versatile enough to serve three distinct markets – Passenger Air Taxi, Urban Cargo Carrier and Air Ambulance.

The company emphasises that the aircraft was designed to be compact, allowing it to integrate into existing urban infrastructure without requiring significant city redesigns.

Developed at the company's own facilities in Chennai, the e200X features in-house development of major components, including propellers, airframe structure, landing gear and battery pack.

This vertical integration provides the company with control over performance, manufacturing costs, and iteration speed, having reached this milestone on approximately USD 21 million in funding.

With assembly complete, the e200X will now undergo ground testing, flight testing and certification.

Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, The ePlane Company, said, "We set out to build an electric aircraft to a world-class benchmark, engineered and manufactured in depth in India for the World.  We deliberately designed the e200X to be compact, because an aircraft that asks a city to rebuild itself around it will not solve the problem it was built to solve. The same airframe can move people as an air taxi, carry goods as a cargo aircraft, and save lives as an air ambulance, and it can do all three using the infrastructure cities already have. That combination of real capability and capital efficiency is how we intend to compete, and win, in markets around the world.”

The company’s board includes prominent figures such as Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest), Eash Sundaram (JetBlue) and Aditya Ghosh (Homage, Akasa Air). The venture, incubated at IIT Madras, has also received international recognition, including being showcased at Bharat Innovates 2026 and featured in Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote.

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

Chinese technology company Xiaomi has marked a new milestone for its automotive product offering with its electric vehicle.

The company has announced a significant milestone in autonomous vehicle technology by completing the first official autonomous lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany with the Xiaomi YU7 GT, equipped with a Track Package, navigating the 20.8 km circuit without a human driver, recording a lap time of 10:29.483.

Following this performance, the Nurburgring has introduced a new official vehicle category: Autonomous Driving (under Electric Vehicles).

The Xiaomi YU7 GT autonomously navigated all 73 corners of the Nordschleife, managing 300 metres of elevation change and varying road surface conditions. The performance was driven by Xiaomi’s autonomous driving system, which integrates the Xiaomi XLA architecture and the MiMo-Embodied foundation model introduced in March 2026. The end-to-end architecture enabled the vehicle to coordinate steering, braking and power delivery in real-time, maintaining stability under high-speed and high-load conditions.

Xiaomi’s autonomous driving programme has evolved since the 2024 launch of Xiaomi HAD. The current system moves beyond simple behaviour imitation toward autonomous decision-making and deeper environmental interpretation. The company stated that the Nurburgring project serves as a critical testing ground to collect data for refining vehicle dynamics modelling, control strategy optimisation and safety redundancy mechanisms.

This achievement underscores Xiaomi’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence in the automotive sector through rigorous real-world validation.

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

QuantumScape Corporation has announced a multi-year joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co., a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co.

The collaboration focuses on advancing QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal battery platform, including the development of associated manufacturing processes.

This agreement follows a successful technology evaluation period during which Honda conducted a technical study and competitive benchmarking of QuantumScape’s battery platform.

Atsushi Ogawa, Chief Operating Officer, Research Center of Excellence, Honda R&D Co, said, “QS technology demonstrated compelling and unique advantages during our evaluation. We see potential for QS technology to add value across a range of applications, including automotive, and we are excited to move forward into the next phase of our partnership.”

Dr. Siva Sivaram, CEO and President, QuantumScape, added, “Honda is a leading global automaker renowned for its engineering excellence and product quality across automotive and other applications worldwide, and its evaluation represents one of the most rigorous assessments of our technology to date. This agreement reflects the growing confidence in QS solid-state lithium-metal batteries to enable safer, higher-density energy storage.”

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!