India-based iGowise Mobility has developed and patented the X4. It’s a unique electric trike that the developer likes to call a Narrow-Tilting-Trike (NTT). With the combination of two wheels at the rear and one at the front, and a tilt function, iGo says that the NTT blends car-like safety with two-wheeler style agility. What is even more special is that iGo’s trike qualifies as a two-wheeler in the Indian market.
We spoke to Sravan K Appana, the co-founder of Be iGo, to dig more into the technology and what that means for electric vehicles for urban mobility.
I wanted to check with you about the history of iGo, where you came from, and where the idea originated, if you could take the readers through that.
Sravan Appana: At iGO, we are a smart mobility startup. We believe EV is only just one part of it, but smart mobility is a much bigger market. We started our journey almost a decade back, so before the pandemic. I was working on a public mobility solution. I’m a Software Engineer. I worked in Malaysia and Israel. I returned to India to pursue a business education at the Indian School of Business. After that, I have also worked on building technology solutions in Fintech, Cloud, and IoT.
I was working with Vizag Smart City; that’s when I kind of had the insight and a lot of frustration about traffic congestion. Even though we were doing a lot of things, the impact on the ground was very minimal. So that’s when it hit me: if we really need to address urban livability, we have to improve mobility. That’s the key with which this leap started.
That’s where I met Suresh, a mobility mastermind, a serial technopreneur, and an innovator working on a public mobility solution: autonomous shuttle pods. This was basically a very lightweight, cost-effective, and very fast-to-build solution that could complement a metro or even supplement it in a university campus, a tech park, or even a tier-2 city where mass transit may not be viable. So that was our project, one that was much more ambitious and exciting. Then we won a grant from Niti Ayog for that project, but the pandemic had different plans for all of us. That’s when we decided to pivot and establish iGO in personal mobility, where we decided to use whatever learnings we had accumulated in a more practical approach. However, the mission has remained the same: How do we provide dignified mobility?
That dignified mobility essentially has three components, right? Sustainable mobility is one part of it. But how do we move safely and smartly? These are the usually missing pieces in personal mobility, at least in the small vehicle space that we wanted to address. Our core technology is where we started: an anti-topple swiveling technology. Typically, I’m sure you know three-wheelers have stability issues, especially toppling.
I’m sure you have seen that there is a higher chance of toppling, right? So that is what we need to address if we are to build a lean mobility solution, right?
Which is more suitable for our urban congestion, right?
So the bottom line is: how do we limit the usage of our four-wheeler bulky vehicles within the urban city, for intracity commuting and all, right? Intercity cars are great, right?
You mentioned the anti-topple mechanism of your product. The way I understand, you have a three-wheeler, scooter-kind of vehicle, a light electric vehicle, which leans into corners. How are you achieving that learning? Let’s go a little bit deeper into the technology. Is it through the rear suspension, or do you have a coupling, or what is it?
Sravan Appana: The trike as a concept is not new, and almost most of the major automobile companies have tried it out, and many, especially in Europe and Japan, have been successful. But the main way they have been configured is that most of the trikes were built for European roads, for high-speed performance, high braking efficiency, and stability at high speeds. Some of them use gyroscopic technology, which is very expensive and bulky. Our core thesis, or the way we have engineered it, is basically how not to make it very energy draining, like gyroscopes and all.
How to not make it very expensive, but try to make it relevant for the Indian market and even most of the emerging world markets, and how to not make it very bulky, right? So compactness is a very, very crucial factor.
With respect to certification and getting qualified as a motorcycle, in fact, as of today, as far as we know, this is the only three-wheeler in the world that you can legally ride with a motorcycle license. Okay. So that’s a very unique distinction. Also, you can park it in a two-wheeler parking space. Extra parking and all are not needed. So that’s a very important aspect of our technology.
The first principles that we have used are not to make it very bulky, and all. It’s a very challenging aspect of our technology. But how exactly it works is quite simple, I’m sure you understand. Basically, our core vehicle is divided into two parts: the upper body and the lower body, right? The lower body comprises our twin wheel. This twin wheel is always perpendicular to the ground, so you get maximum road grip irrespective of a pothole or a speed bump.
Whereas the rest of the body independently maneuvers compared to the lower body. Because of that independent swiveling nature, they can go to high speed and take sharp corners and still get maximum road grip, even better road grip than any sports bike.
The extension to that is our on-demand self-balancing technology. Without using any gyroscopes, with a combination of electrical and hydraulic principles, we engage these two elements. And as the user requires more comfort, let’s say at a traffic signal, they need to stabilize the vehicle. With just a click of a button, they can stabilize it.
It doesn’t use any energy to stabilize because of the simple way that we have configured it.
You said to stabilize it at the click of a button. With three wheels, isn’t it automatically stable?
Sravan Appana: Typical three-wheelers, which are rigid axle three-wheelers, are automatically stable. But that comes with a cost or compromise, which is when you are taking a corner, you don’t get the agility.
Whereas we provide agility at high speeds because of the independent swiveling nature. You need stability at low speeds; that is, when you need to keep your foot down. At low speeds, we can engage this mechanism so that you don’t need to use your legs to balance and strain your knees. So it can automatically engage.
You have a two-wheel drive, right? There are two hub motors in the rear wheels?
Sravan Appana: For the current model, we have gone with a dual-wheel drive. Yeah, multiple reasons. The most important, as I mentioned, is to make it as compact as possible. So if it is any bulkier, we wouldn’t qualify for a motorcycle license, right? So we would have to go for an L3 or L5 license.
At the same time, there are a lot of advantages that we get by having a dual-wheel drive. I’m sure you know how popular all-wheel drive and all-wheel are in the four-wheeler space. So this is another unique distinction. This is the only small vehicle, at least as far as we know, that has a multi-wheel drive. So, very high torque. Irrespective of the capacity or the gradient, we can conquer any terrain.
How do you synchronize the motors?
Sravan Appana: We have multiple elements in that as well. Especially our advanced model, which we are still working on, comes with fully electronic stabilization that self-synchronizes based on several parameters that it collects, and it is currently being trained as well. Whereas our current mechanism, more in the base model, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible and as cost-effective as possible, right? So we are using multiple controllers to provide individual speeds to each of the wheels. So those are synchronized diligently through an algorithm.
So you’re already homologated in India, right?
Sravan Appana: Our base model is already certified, and this is basically the standard variant we have got certified.
Is the standard model the one with the 2.2 kWh battery or the 3.6 kWh battery?
The standard model is with the 3.6 kWh battery. It’s still portable even though it is 3.6 kWh, because of the LMFP chemistry. It’s a portable solution.
Portable, as in, can it be removed from the vehicle?
Sravan Appana: Yes, it can be removed and charged independently. It can be charged within the vehicle as well.
And you have already launched; this is commercially deployed now, right?
Sravan Appana: Yes, commercially deployed, more like a fleet. We are doing paid pilots with multiple customers. We didn’t want to be limited to one set of customers, but because our idea is to utilize our 30-odd pre-production products that are already certified, we were collecting as many data points as possible. So we have these vehicles on lease on a pilot basis for several customers, like there’s a laundry service, there’s a health drink company, there is a toy delivery, we have done plant delivery, and very interesting niche use cases like a coconut seller and a milk delivery guy.
So several cases we have done, not just the regular e-commerce and all, but many small micro-entrepreneurs. We have tried it out and tested it out; we have even facilitated a pilot with an ITC distribution center. So, we have gathered a lot of real-world data, almost one lakh kilometers of real-world customer data, and that helped us refine. Our next-generation platform is going to be ready within the next 30 days. So that is when we will be going for full-scale production.
Where is your production facility?
Sravan Appana: So we have a facility in Bangalore, right here in the Bangalore field. Okay. That is the end-to-end of our R&D center. We started as an R&D center. We have extended a 10,000 sq-ft facility like a microfactory. Currently, we are building the entire chassis. The whole assembly line is situated right here.
But here we can only do limited things, like you know, 100 to 200 vehicles a month in multiple shifts.
We also have a couple of contract manufacturing partners: one in Pune, Hyderabad, and one in Ahmedabad. We are in discussion about finalizing.
How much are the prices of your various variants?
Sravan Appana: So our base model, 2.2 kWh, is INR 145,000. This is the standard pricing. We will be introducing some discounted introductory prices soon and will be announcing those. But yes, our standard model comes at INR 185,000. That’s a 3.6 kWh. And our premium model will be around upwards of two lakhs.
And at that price, you are gross margin positive and in a good place?
Sravan Appana: Yes. At this price, we will definitely be gross margin positive.
However, for the initial set of customers, we will be having an introductory price. So that may not be, but yeah, that’s for a limited set of customers.
How has the customer response been? Are they liking the product? Are they interested in acquiring it, the ones that you’re doing a pilot with?
Yes, the response is phenomenal. We are pleasantly surprised, in multiple ways, actually. As we said, one of our core demographics or the target audience is elderly and women customers, right? So, where typical two-wheelers struggle to balance, or the learning curve is also quite high for many folks, right? So that was pretty much expected. We were getting inquiries on multiple social media channels and our website, even without any marketing and with zero advertising.
So far, from almost 17 or 18 states, we have enquiries from different districts, and even from 20+ international markets. We have enquiries with essentially zero spend, and that has been the case. But more interesting is that beyond these targeted cases, we were getting very interesting cases.
So there is a farmer who wanted a cold storage kind of a container for bringing his tomatoes to market, right? There is a clinic that wants their blood samples and their collection that happens, and they need to take it. They travel 40-50 kilometers into rural Telangana. So they also wanted a similar last-mile, temperature-sensitive solution, and that is something that has been one of the repeated requests that come to us.
Additionally, there is a health drink company in Karnataka. They not only wanted this solution so that they could have a shop on wheels. They want to go to tech parks and universities and promote these health drinks. Beyond that, they want to use the product as a branding solution, so the vehicle itself needed to be a brand on wheels, advertising on wheels. That is something that we are also working on. As I said, these are some things that we haven’t considered when we started, but many of these requests come from…
So there are so many niche use cases that do not have a solution today.
So the core target base for this product is the utility segment? How much better do you rate this specific product than a typical two-wheeler being used in the utility segment? I understand the safety aspect. Is there a benefit in load carrying as well? Is there more space?
Sravan Appana: Most certainly. One of our customers referred to us as a 2.5-wheeler. That’s a perfect description of our approach. So typically what happens, whether it is a scooter or even a moped, right? They do provide some capacity, but most of them are not built for that, right? Especially on our roads, people do all kinds of jugaad and try to carry, but these are essentially built for personal usage, but kind of repurposed, right? But they do provide good speed, which is also essential, along with capacity, right? Whereas if you go for a three-wheeler, obviously, auto rickshaws and all are very expensive, INR 350,000 and above for L5 categories, while L3 categories are also available. But if you observe closely, most of the L3s are relegated to the Delhi NCR, UP, and Bihar belt.
It’s a growing category, very interesting. It’s highly consistent and has been growing, but it’s unable to penetrate west or south of India as much as in the north.
So that is one of our propositions. Capacity is important, but there are other aspects also, which is why it is not able to penetrate, like Hyderabad, Bangalore, or Chennai. Those are the elements that we are trying to address. In many cases, we don’t provide as much capacity as an L3 vehicle, but we provide a higher speed of 70 kph versus the 25 kph the L3 vehicles provide, higher stability, and lower parking space, and these are also important. So, because of this, even though there are so many L3s, like almost more than 250, 300 small brands are there, no major brand can capture the entire L3 market because higher reliability, etc., is also missing in this category. While significant strides have been made compared to the three years before, there’s still no major player in this particular category.
So that’s what we are offering. We are offering a balance between speed and capacity, whereas others are offering either speed or capacity.
I think the balance between speed and capacity is a very interesting proposition to have.
Sravan Appana: So many people underestimate this. The turnaround time is very important in many cases. It may not be in all cases. Capacity is as important as turnaround time. So that has been another insight for us right from the start.
Very interesting. And you just raised a funding round, I believe. What is the overall funding situation as of now, and are you raising another round anytime soon?
Sravan Appana: So we have been raising. As I said, we started our journey in June 2020. In 2022, when we basically had not even the first prototype ready, that’s when we raised around INR 30 million from friends and family within our immediate network. Since then, we have been raising mostly from angels from my alma mater, the Indian School of Business, within our extended network.
So, this has been INR 60 million we have raised in the last three years in multiple tranches, mostly from angels. We have also recently closed a bridge round.
So, we will be comfortably starting our full-scale revenues and production, and we plan to raise seed investment of USD 1-2 million post-January.
How big is the team right now?
Sravan Appana: We are a small team of 17 members right now. We have a few consultants also who are supporting us, but our core engineering and hands-on team work closely, spanning across automobile, powertrain, intelligence systems, and digital marketing.
Our mission goes beyond the current target group. Beyond the current product and current TG, our technology has multiple implications and is impactful technology. It goes beyond the product that we are trying to create right now. So there is a very interesting use case of, I’m sure you will relate, ride-hailing. Today, in the bike taxi market, there is not a single option that provides a dignified, comfortable way to move the last mile for a woman with a child or with some luggage. So there is not a single option available.
So there is so much emphasis on electrification, petrol savings, emissions, and all. Right. But we cannot ignore the core elements of safe mobility and going from one place to another in a smart way, right? So that is a very important element.
We are adding 12,000 new cars every single day. We are a 4 trillion dollar economy! Just imagine a decade from now. How many more four-wheelers are we going to add? Is it feasible for our metros, our cities, to handle any more? So this is something we are working on a very tight timeline. We have to solve this, or we are going to get stuck. It doesn’t matter if all the cars are going electric. We will still be stuck in traffic. Right? So this very important mission that we are on, beyond the initial use case of logistics or even trying to improve road safety for two-wheelers. So those are the elements that I wanted to touch upon. One last thing is again, we have just started our franchisee network. We have started getting a lot of traction on that part also. We are finalizing our distribution channels and setting up and formalizing the franchisee model for dealerships and all.
