Electric vehicle startup Gayam Motor Works looks for tie-up with Ola, Gati

Hyderabad-based Gayam Motor Works (GMW) is discussing with auto-hailing app Ola, logistics firm Gati and packed food delivering startup iD Fresh to pilot its electric auto-rickshaws.

"Flipkart's logistics arm Ekart is doing a pilot with our electric autos for last mile delivery. We are in talks with several other companies. We also have few orders from B2B companies and the state government organisations," GMW chief operations officer Sri Harsha Bavirisetty said.

The startup has partnered with online grocery retailer BigBasket to pilot electric autos in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. In the first phase, it has delivered 10 vehicles out of the overall order for 50 electric autos.

Recently, the company has received an order from Andhra Pradesh government to pilot ten customised hydraulic electric autos for Vijayawada Municipal Corporation. It is currently preparing to deliver these vehicles in a couple of months.

It offers both passenger and cargo variants of electric autos with a load capacity of 450 kg and maximum speed of 55 kmph. The battery has lithium ion technology that runs 100-110 km for a full charge of three hours. It has two versions of electric bikes that run 30 km and 60 km respectively for a full charge of two-and-a-half hours, according to Bavirisetty .

The seven-year old company is supplying electric bikes to Uber's food delivery service UberEATS in Singapore, Hong Kong and San Francisco. It is hopeful that Uber will continue the association while entering into Japan and India.

GMW was started in 2010 by brothers Raja Gayam and Rahul Gayam who were initially focusing on manufacturing traditional diesel autos. Now they are totally involved in making electric autos to its B2B clients.

According to Sri Harsha Bavirisetty, electric autos have lower running and maintenance cost at Rs 0.50 per km, while the fuel and maintenance cost of diesel auto is around Rs 3.50 per km.

GMW has a facility in Patancheru with 35 people working for the manufacturing process. It is planning to raise around $ 2.5 million from investors who have domain expertise in clean energy space.