It was early 2018, when people looked wide-eyed on the road an electric scooter ‘Butterfly’ the Joy E Bike. It was an overnight success. The huge response gave Wardwizard, the company behind the launch, wings to soar high. The year 2019 proved lucky for the company which expanded its product portfolio by launching five electric scooters in slow speed segment. The same year the company became the first EV manufacturer of India to be listed on BSE.
When the Wardwizard was born in 2016 under the leadership of Mr Yatin Gupte, it was manufacturing electric bicycles. And in just five years the company has come a long way with its Joy e-bikes becoming a brand to reckon with. Strengthening its presence in the evolving high-speed electric two-wheeler segment, in February 2022, the company launched two new ‘Made-in-India’ high-speed scooters named Wolf+ and Gen Next Nanu+.
Wardwizard is fast emerging as one of the industry leaders with innovative products and advanced engineering skills. With the continuous unveiling of its various models, the company has demonstrated a strong commitment to meet the EV aspirations of Indian consumers by providing the best quality products.
In a brief tete-a-tete with Indian Economy & Market, the visionary and enthusiastic entrepreneur Mr Yatin Gupte, Chairman and MD, Wardwizard Innovations & Mobility speaks about the range of innovative products, the market and future plans.
“We are aligned to vision of the government of reducing the carbon emissions”
Please let us know the journey so far? After all, you are first listed Electric Vehicle Manufacturer.
We started Wardwizard in 2016 and in 2018, launched our first slow speed electric scooter named as ‘Butterfly’ under Joy E Bike. The company expanded its product portfolio in 2019 by launching five electric scooters in slow speed segment. I can proudly say that 2019 was a major year for Wardwizard as in this year the company got listed on BSE and became the first EV manufacturer of India to be listed. From manufacturing electric bicycles in 2016, the company has come a long way with its Joy e-bikes becoming a brand to reckon with in just five years. In January 2021, we had inaugurated our first manufacturing plant in Vadodara. Strengthening our presence in the evolving high-speed electric two-wheeler segment, in February 2022 we launched two new ‘Made-in-India’ high-speed scooters named Wolf+ and Gen Next Nanu+.
How beneficial has been government’s push towards eco-friendly technology and E-vehicle especially?
We are aligned to vision of the Indian government of reducing the carbon emissions. To achieve this we have designed our production process as well as the final product in that way. Thus with our own small contribution we are continuously encouraging the green mobility across India. In next 6 months we are going to be 100% localised EV manufacturer in India on the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. Our focus is to expand this green thinking to each corner of this country, and for this we are expanding to various tier I, tier II and tier III towns and cities.
Government is providing the necessary initial push for the sector. PLI, FAME and state subsidies are surely helping the industry growth. Semiconductor PLI is also a great step from the central government in shaping the future of this industry.
How is the production going? Are you utilizing the full capacity?
Our manufacturing unit in Vadodara is equipped to fulfill the entire present production requirement. Considering the growing demand for EVs, majorly driven by the electric two-wheelers and to increase our annual production capacity from one lakh units to two lakh units in single shift, we have also started new automatic assembly line in our facility. The production capacity can be further ramped up to 6 lakh units annually with three shifts depending on the market demand. So right now we are utilizing the full capacity.
Please tell us about all other products the company is manufacturing?
Talking about the product side, our product portfolio consists of 12 electric two wheelers – 5 low speed and 7 high speed. We recently entered the high speed scooter vertical with two new high speed scooters named Wolf+ and Gen Next Nanu+. Being ahead of the industry, we have also launched a fleet management vehicle Del Go for our experience centers. We are also in the final stages of entering into electric three wheeler vertical in next 6-8 months. To meet the growing demands of the e-vehicles, we will soon foray into more segments, including an e-rickshaw in the passenger segment. We are looking at 25 percent market share in e-scooter and another 15 percent in e-rickshaw segment.
Do you find any interest shown on the export front?
We already have our presence in the international market. Currently we are exporting our products to Uganda and we are in further process of development and establishing a manufacturing unit there. We are also planning to expand our footprints in other African countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. We are getting enquiries from some more countries but these are in the initial stage.
Are you certain to become number one in EV segment and what all are the plans to achieve that huge target?
Certainly yes. As the demand is increasing multifold we need to ramp up the production. And that’s what we are doing now. We have done very meticulous planning on each front. Be in investment on R&D, creating new designs, new marketing strategy, or increasing our footprints across the nation. In a nutshell I can tell you that Wardwizard plans to invest Rs 500 crore to ramp up technology and infrastructure, among others, to meet the increased demand. The industry is also showing very positive signs. I am sure the industry will grow multifold for at least another couple of years. For FY23, we are in the process of developing an EV ancillary to give boost to in-house component production. We also have plans to develop two additional manufacturing facilities in eastern and southern India.
What has been the impact of Covid?
Like almost all the sectors the FY’22 was challenging year for us also. Covid had taken away the momentum from the economy. However, by innovating our approach and focusing on ‘Make in India’ principle we successfully turned this challenge into an opportunity and achieved positive results. We shifted focus on the brand building and registering significant sales volumes.
In entire year, the company has shown incremental performance on a Q-o-Q basis adding more satisfied customers to the Wardwizard family.
Please share latest financials.
The third quarter (October – December 2021) financial results were very good and we were able to achieve our targets on the lines of guidance. In fact on revenue front in this quarter we succeeded beyond targets clocking the highest ever numbers. It was more than Rs. 58.3 crore compared to Rs.11.85 crore in Q3 FY’21. Thus we registered a growth of more than 392%. If we compare the numbers on quarter on quarter basis the picture could be clearer – Revenue Growth 73.7% on Q-o-Q; highest ever revenue at Rs. 58.3 crore vs Rs.11.85 crore; highest ever EBITDA at Rs. 4.52 crore vs Rs. 86.94 lakh and highest ever PAT at Rs. 2.86 crore vs 74.02 lakh. Besides, more than 10k units of electric scooters and motorcyles were sold in Q3FY’22 vs 1324 units in Q3 FY’21.
What is the progress on the Rs 1,000 crore capex to expand into the electric car market?
It is still very early to comment on the electric car market expansion. We are still in very early stage of E-4 wheeler development. As for now we are focused on Electric Two wheelers. By 2025 we are planning to showcase our first prototype.
