Gulf Oil Lubricants partners Gulf Oil Intl for exploring EV charging space

Hinduja group company, Gulf Oil Lubricants India on Thursday said it has partnered with Gulf Oil International for investing and exploring opportunities in the electric vehicle charging space.

Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd (GOLIL) has entered into an agreement with Gulf Oil International (GOI) to participate and co-invest in Gulf Oil International's recent investment along with the Clean Growth Fund (CGF - a UK venture capital fund) in a UK-based smart energy and electric vehicle technology company Indra Renewable Technologies, a company release said.

The charging station market, as per estimates, is expected to have a good potential in coming years, wherein around 50-60 per cent is expected to be in residential charging solutions which is where Indra is positioned to play, the release added.

"With the evolving EV space in India, where charging options will become an important decision criterion, we are excited about this association," said Ravi Chawla, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Gulf Oil Lubricants India.

Chawla further said that "as we continue to evolve our strategy in this space, we will look at opportunities where we can leverage and synergise the Indra technology with our brand, distribution, OEM/ Infra-B2B customer relationships in India, to cater for the future market and consumer requirements in this space."

With this, Gulf India will get access to an established technology in electric vehicle (EV) charging space to adopt the same for Indian conditions and leverage its wide distribution and brand strengths to extend Gulf Branded residential and commercial charging points as per the evolving needs of Indian consumers.

Gulf India will become a shareholder with CGF and GOI in Indra, alongside OVO Group, which provided seed capital and technical support to Indra via Kaluza, its technology business.

The prime focus for Gulf India would be passenger car and light commercial vehicle residential charging segment with Indra's smart chargers while it evaluates opportunities in the two-wheeler segment, said the release.

The market is also expected to disrupt with new technologies such as V2G (Vehicle to Grid) chargers which are already developed by Indra and could support the power requirements of individual homes as a backup and also offer opportunities to form partnerships with potential microgrid solution providers in the future.

Indra's home-grown R&D and technology and OEM approvals will be critical success factors in this endeavour, it added.

GOLIL markets a range of automotive and industrial lubricants, greases, 2-wheeler batteries, among others and has presence across over 100 countries.