The key takeaways for me from this year’s Annual Report are as follows:
This is very significant since HBL is the only company that makes everything in house from battery cells to battery packs in India as of now and cna have customised solution for various use cases. I am not sure about volumes here but onboarding Siemens for LIB is very significant as it shows how HBL can be a key partner in areas where China is not an option for batteries.
This is first time HBL has confirmed making newer EV trucks. The story until now was always retrofit. HBL owns the complete technology here from battery/controlller/charging infra/motors etc. Lookin at the current set of alternatives in the market I don’t see any competitor which has complete in house technology. How this will play out is very difficult to predict since it requires a lot of things to fall into place including financing + charging infra but having known HBL they will put their best foot fwd and not come with a half baked solution. They have also gained experience in setting up charging infrastructure with their subsidiary TTL ELECTRIC FUEL PVT LTD (EFL).
Going by the above HBL plans to offer a far more comprehensive EV solution than just selling EV trucks but limiting it for the area usage to a few highways in the beginning and later expanding the network.
Clearly acknowledging that it is difficult to compete with the Chinese EV battery ecosystem unless there is Government support. HBL has always been clear it doesn’t want to get into businesses which require govt subsidiy or duty support.
HBL over last 10 years have made two ‘PE type investments’ one was Igarshi and other more recently Tonbo. Even though both of these have been excellent investments both in terms of valuations where they were bought and the exit/visibiity that they have I hope that these ‘PE type investments’ remain far and few. I would have preferred if the promoters did it in their own account.
Looks like the company will move towards some kind of professional management model with key promoters ensuring business continuity.
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