TVS MOTOR: BORN ICE, NOW READY FOR ELECTRIC

The company is a distant third in the two-wheeler ICE market. But it is banking on technology to lead the EV pack

- Alisha Sachdev

Late in August, with Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa in the background, Sudarshan Venu, the 34-year-old managing director of TVS Motor Company, unveiled the TVS X, an electric motorcycle-scooter hybrid. Venu was joined on the stage by Sir Ralf Speth, chairman of the company, and K.N. Radhakrishnan, the company’s CEO. The TVS X is a ground-up, ultra-premium, ‘born-electric’ two-wheeler that will be sold in India and in developed markets. At ₹2.5 lakh, it will never be a mass market product. But the purpose of the event was to showcase its technology, create a brand halo, and underline the company’s global ambitions.

Indeed, the word technology trips off the tongue freely for TVS’s top management. At the TVS X launch, when this reporter asked Speth what had drawn him two years ago to take over as chairman of an Indian two-wheeler maker, after a career spent in turning around luxury car businesses, notably Jaguar Land Rover, he responded with one word, “Technology."

In an interview with Mint a few weeks after unveiling the TVS X, Venu said, “TVS has a 2030 transformation vision, and it is focused on four pillars: technology, talent, great products, and global expansion."

TVS, he noted, harnesses technology to be a trailblazer. “In our beginnings, mopeds empowered people with affordable mobility, then the Scooty empowered young women. The Shogun was the first racing bike, the NTorq was India’s first connected scooter, and Apache transformed racing. HLX revolutionized commercial mobility in Africa, and iQube pioneered sustainable mobility," Venu told Mint.

Now, TVS is on a mission to build electric vehicle (EV) capabilities in-house. “The intention is to drive more vertical integration and that’s why we’ve shown a product, the TVS X, where the battery management system, battery design, motor, software, UI/UX is entirely designed in-house," Venu said.