Causis E-Mobility, a company registered in India and backed by the UK fund, plans to set up factories for two-wheelers, three-wheelers and electric buses. The goal is to operate across the entire electric vehicle value chain, from setting up an 8 gigawatt-hour lithium-ion cell factory, four manufacturing plants and charging stations that will use energy from renewable sources.
This will require an investment of $6 billion to $8 billion (Rs 45,000 to 60,000 crore) in India, 30% of which will come from equity financing and the rest from locally raised debt, executives at ET have told ET. businesses.
The fund is seeking to raise $10 billion from investors and has so far raised a few hundred million dollars, they said.
Causis investors include Alex Lao, a carbon-neutral Canadian investor; Owen Van Natta, former CEO of Facebook; and former NYSE chief operating officer Lary Leibowitz. The group is chaired by Peter Knez, former chief investment officer at BlackRock.
“It’s a pure impact fund. We look at ROI (return on investment) differently than typical investors. The way we plan to invest has a lot to do with a long-term strategy for us and not with get-rich-quick scenarios,” Ram Tumuluri, Founder and CEO of Causis Group, told ET.
“This is a 10-year program and all of our investors are focused on ESG (environment, social and governance). They understand ESG, they understand emerging markets,” he said.
Causis Group has acquired German company Eurabus for its electric bus technology, which it now intends to bring to India. The company will invest $1 billion in infrastructure in India, including about $200 million in its four planned manufacturing sites, $625 million in a gigafactory and funds to generate renewable energy.
However, a large part of the funds will go to funding the financing of electric vehicles, first buses and then three- and two-wheelers. Vehicles will not be pre-sold unlike other automakers. Instead, the Causis Fund will bear the initial cost and the vehicles would be hired for public transport or to generate self-employment – scoring on the ESG social account.
The company has already invested around Rs 300 crore in India to acquire a bus body maker in Jaipur and a 75-acre land near Pune for its second factory, executives told ET.
He signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government in October last year to invest Rs 2,800 crore in the state. It signed a similar memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government this month for its third plant. The location of the fourth manufacturing site is not yet finalized.
The company also won a tender for 700 double-decker electric buses from Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), for which it offered Rs 56 per kilometer of use. Rival bids were Rs 62, Rs 117 and Rs 173, according to reports. It plans to deliver the first bus by November this year.
Causis E-Mobility plans to address the challenges faced by companies in the field of mobility by using capital that does not depend on quick returns. These include access to capital, technology acquisition, scaling and financing for customers.
The company says that because it has all parts of the ecosystem under its belt – manufacturing, financing, charging, power generation – it was able to quote a low figure of Rs 56 per kilometer to BEST for its electric buses.
“We are not going to sell vehicles in competition with others. Our vehicle launch has a full social impact angle,” Tumuluri said.
The latest phases of Causis’ plans in India include the manufacture of two- and three-wheeled vehicles and the manufacture of airframes. The company said it missed the government’s deadline to apply for the production-linked incentive program for cell manufacturing.
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