Ampere, BSA, Hero, Mahindra, TVS are all big names
in the electric two-wheeler segment in India. 2016 has so far witnessed two startup
launches in this segment. In February was launched Ather, a Bengaluru based
company that germinated in the incubation cell of IIT Madras in 2013, and had
later received jaw dropping funding from the founders of Flipkart and venture
capital investment firm, Tiger Global, to the tune of Rs 6.3 crore and Rs 75.3
crore respectively. In contrast, the other launch, Spero, albeit sharing a few
similarities with Ather in terms of technology, took to crowd funding to raise a
sum of Rs 30 lakh. Partnering with Fuel a Dream, an online crowd funding
platform, the Coimbatore based company has raised more money than what it aimed
in just three months (At the time of writing the funding stood at 129%), and has earned the distinction of being India’s
first crowd funded electric bike.
A management graduate by education but an engineer
by practice, Spero’s founder thirty-nine-year-old Mr Shanmugasundaram
Manikandan is also the Managing Director of Milltex Engineers Pvt Ltd, a
company that has been dealing with textile machinery spares and innovation kits
for almost four decades.
“We are not from that league to convince someone to
give us few million Dollars with just thoughts and ideas. We come from a brick
and mortar family. I am a second generation businessman and I put my savings
into this idea and made a prototype,” says Manikandan explaining why he
resorted to crowd funding.
Spero’s crowd funding has become a success. It has
already raised Rs 38,64,800 from 146 funders with few pre-ordering the vehicle
and few others contributing as less as Rs 100 for the idea. Manikandan is
completely overwhelmed by this.
“The fact that we had people contributing money not
to own a Spero but for the idea was visual when you had people contributing Rs 100,
Rs 500, and Rs 1000. Hats off to those people! As per our charter we cannot
give them a Spero but in return I can give them a good product, a good business
opportunity for people. That is what we can show them in return for the trust
they had in us. Our heart actually bleeds - a person who spent Rs 100 would
have aspired to own a Spero but he couldn’t; this is all he could set aside.
Wonderful! There is nothing overwhelming than this. It is as good as meeting a
strong financier and taking money from him. We are taking this small token with
humility.”
He further says that out of the 99 ‘backers’ for
Speros, i.e., such people who have given money to own one for themselves, only
30 have done a test ride. Others, who form a majority, he says, have just seen
the photographs and videos of the Spero online. “They have not even seen Spero
in real. This is amazing! We are not Amazon to sell One Plus. We are Spero and
Milltex,” explains Manikandan completely moved by the trust people have reposed
in his new venture.
Makers of Spero are insistent that every feature of
the vehicle must be used by its owner. They have thus tried to keep things as
simple as possible.
“There is a general theory that we use only 30% of
our smartphone’s features. Even Steve Jobs might not have used all applications
that were available in an Apple product. We do not want that to happen in the
case of Spero. We would like people to use all the features. Therefore, we have
ensured that everything is kept as simple as possible.”
Manikandan is quite confident that Spero is going to
act as a benchmark in the electric two-wheeler segment. “For a simple electric
bike, which is a pedaler, this is the platform. People will not accept anything
inferior to this anymore,” says Manikandan exuding confidence in his product
that will officially be launched in September.
Behind his confidence is not book or theoretical
knowledge of how an electric bike can be manufactured but know-how gathered by trial
and error.
“I wanted to make a product that will be a part of
the solution to global warming. We had 7-8 young minds in our core team and we
all came up with a list of products out of which Spero was chosen. But the
problem was that we were neither cycle manufacturers nor electrical experts. We
were mechanical people. Ludhiana is the hub of cycles for the world. It meant
that what could be done there could be done in Coimbatore also. It is just
geometry and putting together! We studied the history of cycles and tried a lot
of combinations. We made few, pedaled them. We bought few from the market,
broke them down. We understood minute things – raw material, thickness, tubes,
etc. We learnt it this way. But cycle was just one aspect. Other was
electrical. We split our team into two. Heart, the battery, was separated from
the soul, the finesse. After about 9 to 12 months we had both ready.”
Coimbatore based Manikandan does not want to limit
the Spero within the boundaries of India; his thinking is global. A peek into
his global thought was when this author heard him deliberate with one of his team
members over phone about the number of digits required for the chasis number. “Let
us increase the digits and make it 17; that happens to be the global standard,”
he told his colleague.
When asked about this he explains a bit further of
another plan that is similar. “Electric bikes come under the unregistered
system. But we don’t want it to be like that. Every vehicle we sell will have a
unique serial number. Later, we also want to add a RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification) tag with the approval of the owner to tag the vehicle forever.
It is pertinent that we give the government a way to track any vehicle that we
sell.”
But in his global thinking Manikandan affirms that
it ‘shall not be done at the cost of the aspiring Indian.’ The first priority
shall be India, he says, adding that by March 2020 they will have a presence in
every Indian city. “There must be support and comfort for the buyer. Whatever
happens they should have somebody to go to.”
Apart from being the first crowd funded bike in
India, Spero also has the distinction of being the first Indian electric bike
that uses regenerative braking technology. “A considerable amount of energy is
wasted while braking. We did not want that to go wasted and to that effect we
have incorporated regenerative braking by which that energy which would
otherwise have been wasted goes to the battery and recharges it.” Recharging of
the Li-ion battery which Spero uses also happens when the rider is using his
energy and pedaling.
Spero also boasts of a digital interface by which,
Manikandan says, the rider can “talk to the Spero.” The interface will let the
rider set speed limits, disable power connection from the battery, and also
display information like the battery capacity, motor temperature, etc. There is
also a cruise control activated when the Spero is driven at a constant speed
for six seconds, thereby letting the interface take over and move the Spero at
the same speed without having the rider to throttle. “When cruise control takes
over you can leave your wrist to relax,” Manikandan says with a smile.
Manikandan is in love with Coimbatore, the city
which has been his home. He wonders how Coimbatore missed being an automobile
hub and wishes that Spero will bring a name to Coimbatore.
“The spirit of Coimbatore does not just mean
entrepreneurship; it also means automobiles. People from Coimbatore like
Karivardan (Indian formula racing driver and designer) and Narain Karthikeyan,
Karivardhan’s father GKS Sir (referring to Lakshmi Mills founder G.K. Sundaram
Naidu), ELGI Sir (referring to ELGI founder LRG Naidu), have all been auto
enthusiasts. Somehow I fail to understand how Coimbatore missed becoming an
auto cluster. It is an auto ancillary cluster but it never became an automobile
cluster. The city is an education hub, machinery hub, medical tourism hub but
somehow automobile is elusive. It is a golden opportunity. I thought why not give
it a try. We chose electric because that is the future.”
Being a South Indian it is hard for anyone to miss
the traditional three-course meal. Manikandan makes a comparison to the way a
three-course meal is had to e-mobility and hybrid technology.
“In a three-course meal after having rice with
sambar there will be a little bit of sambar left. You don’t wipe it off. The
same happens after having rasam and then curd. There will be a bit of all these
left on the plate. What we do is we take bit of rice and have it with all that
remains on the plate. Why can’t we replicate this into mobility? Why can’t we
have a mix of petrol, diesel and electric?”
Manikandan believes that with the risk of global
warming looming large an immediate intervention is called for. In electronic
vehicles he sees hope. “Hybrid has already been positioned but has not taken
off. Electric has lost momentum. Now is the time to come back with a bang and
say electric is the future.”
“For e-mobility to grow there has to be a people’s
movement. We can’t wait till the end to make a change,” he adds.
(An abridged version of this article was published in The News Minute)
If you like to fund Spero or buy one, click here.
