Exponent Energy

#ExponentSpotlight ft. saravanan Murugan Saravanan is the heart of our customer experience and service team at Exponent. Our 15-minute charging tech is only as good as the reliability of our network and battery packs—and Saravanan helps set a high bar, coordinating service teams across cities. “EVs are new and 15-minute charging also people don’t believe at first—they think that we’re doing some magic,” he says with a smile. “We have to give the customer confidence from Day 1, that we are behind you.” Drivers need to believe their EV will be as reliable as any ICE vehicle—which is why our service teams take any complaint or request, whether it’s about the network, battery or even the vehicle itself. Drivers transact with Exponent on a daily basis for charging, and sometimes, we as the network become the first point of contact even for a vehicle issue. This lets us play an enabling role for our partner OEMs on the service front. “We call customers in the first week and ask how the charging experience is and if there are any issues they are facing. We tell them, ‘If there is any problem, we will definitely help,’” says Saravanan. “When a call comes, we decide if it is a charging station issue or a vehicle issue and within 10 minutes assign a ticket,” he says. “Within 1 hour, anywhere in the city, a technician will reach the location.” To pull off these rapid service turnarounds—a first for three-wheelers—is not easy, but the team works closely with our network and product groups to manage with a tight set of technicians in each city. For a station issue, Saravanan and his team would quickly reroute the driver while sending in a technician to get the charger up and running. For a vehicle problem, the field technician diagnoses the issue and the driver is directed to the partner OEM’s service center. “We also collect feedback and issues and share it with OEMs every week,” Saravanan says. Internally, he also jumps in wherever needed to improve the customer experience—like when he spent six months working with production and engineering teams at our factory to iron out product issues. “For three-wheeler drivers, it is all about their daily earning, so it is crucial to solve problems in the field and also prevent them before they happen,” he says.

It’s a common misconception that India has low levels of EV penetration, or that it’s only a small market for electric vehicles in general. Sceptics tend to say that EVs are a phenomenon for more developed markets and will take a long time to take off in India. Our CEO, Arun Vinayak says the opposite is true—India is effectively the biggest EV market outside of China. Read on to find out how:

Cracked it 🍳 Say hello to Sunny Side Up™️

The buzz around India’s deeptech story has been gathering momentum—and for good reason. At Exponent, we’ve seen firsthand the unique challenges and big opportunities of building scalable deep-tech solutions in India. The mix of cutting-edge engineering and market-driven innovation makes it an incredible space to work in. We're excited to join 3one4 Capital on Nov 20 for a conversation about the future of deeptech in India ⚡ RSVP here - https://lu.ma/jgv9d869

#ExponentSpotlight ft. Kaushal Atodaria Kaushal joined Exponent more than two years ago to work on the idea of “Network as a Product”. Along the way, he got so immersed in the goal that he ended up leading our entire charging operations, from network expansion to sales to service. When the network needed someone to take over, “I just raised my hand and volunteered,” Kaushal says. “Trust in the system is high. Things need to be done, anyone can step up.” “Network for Exponent is not just a business, it is the amalgamation of design, product, customer experience, finance, software, and a recurring customer touchpoint,” Kaushal says. “It’s really the culmination of all of Exponent’s blood, sweat, and tears.” “Charging theoretically has better technology compared to a fuel station, especially in the form of payment collection, but the hurdles right now to use an EV are significant,” he says—hunting for a charging station, hoping it’s working and not occupied, and that it delivers power as advertised. “We are solving this problem not only through technology and managing charging experiences but also with our thought-through coverage and unparallelled uptime.” Our e^pump network has some of the best uptimes in India—95-96%—and Kaushal and his teams are pushing to get it as good as the best in the world! The key to this, he says, lies in a mix of intent, product, and planning. The intent in both business and operations teams is to kill charging anxiety; build a custom charging product that works hand-in-hand with our battery packs; and plan the network in a way to handle coverage and redundancy simultaneously. “Today, the team can deploy new network locations with a turnaround time of days, not months, across Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, and more,” Kaushal says. With a playbook that he proudly points out can be taken to any new city. Now, he’s coming back to that initial concept of Network as a Product—where the charger, software, firmware, network planning, intelligence, analytics, and more come together to make a truly seamless EV experience.

We believe engineering without economics is just a science experiment. Similarly, breakthrough rapid charging technology is of little use without a robust & reliable charging network. Maintaining charger reliability is tough, especially in India—plagued by erratic power supply, voltage and grid instability, customer apathy, and vandalism. Even a decent public charging network in the country has an average charger uptime of around 85%. We hit uptimes of 95-96% on our network of e^pumps. Kaushal Atodaria explains how we pull it off!

Reliving the energy of PRAWAAS 4.0 🚍⚡ Check out the highlights from the launch of the world's only 15-minute rapid charging bus, powered by 1MW charging technology! 🔋 Veera Vahana Udyog Pvt. Ltd.

📢 Big announcement today — We’ve partnered with Veera Vahana to launch the world’s fastest charging electric bus that rapid charges in 15 minutes ⚡ Made possible by our 1 megawatt charging tech, 3rd of its kind worldwide (after Tesla & Siemens), is proudly designed, engineered, and built in India 🇮🇳 Today, electric buses are restricted to either intracity or short intercity routes due to limited range & long charging time ⏱ That changes today. We’re electrifying the Bengaluru-Hyderabad route first. 650 km with two short stops mimicking an ICE-like experience whilst delivering up to 30% savings — unlocking long-haul intercity e-bus travel 🚌

What makes our 15-minute charging tech special? Won’t faster charging batteries just solve the problem? Spoiler alert: We can charge them even faster then. A cell is still just a can of chemicals—managing the flow of energy to rapid charge is where we come in. Arun Vinayak breaks it down on why true rapid charging is more than just better cells 🔋 ⚡

Here's a glimpse of what went down at the Bengaluru launch of the Omega Seiki Mobility Stream City Qik! ⚡