Euler Motors aspires to be India’s number one electric commercial vehicle Brand: Vani R Mehra

Electric Commercial Vehicle OEM Euler Motors sold 3,499 EVs in FY 24-25 (source: EVreporter Data Intelligence). The OEM has raised INR 1,420 crore to date. Investors include Hero MotoCorp, British International Investment, Blume Ventures, Athera Partners, Asian Development Bank Ventures, and Piramal Alternatives India Access Fund. Euler has a manufacturing facility in Palwal, Haryana.

Vani Rikhy Mehra, VP – Sales and Mobility at Euler Motors, oversees both institutional and retail channels and has played a key role in shaping Euler’s go-to-market strategy. During this interaction, we explored the nuances of India’s commercial EV market where Euler operates.

In 2021, Euler launched HiLoad e-3W (L5), and towards the end of 2024, you introduced the Storm EV, an e-LCV. How did the decision to enter these segments come about?

Commercial vehicles are designed for performance and profitability, where Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) plays a crucial role. We focused on commercial vehicles for intra-city routes and last-mile mobility. For commercial users, if TCO breaks even in 18 months, adoption follows despite the higher upfront cost. With Euler, higher payload and range directly improved customer earnings, and these parameters shaped our product portfolio.

In 2016–18, the L5 vehicle made sense because cost parity could be achieved within 18 months of TCO return, given the lithium-ion battery prices at that time. Fast forward to 2024, when the light commercial 4W vehicles started to electrify, and we felt that their TCO could also break even within 24 months – we launched the Storm EV.

Going forward, we will continue to innovate in the cargo segment with different vehicle form factors, but only when they make commercial sense. Bringing a product at the wrong price point may be possible, but it won’t drive electrification. For us, customer affordability is key. That’s why we invest in prototyping and exploring different formats, but the decision to launch always depends on whether the cost and economics support mass adoption.

L5 and LCV — what kind of customer base do each of these vehicles cater to?

For our HiLoad 3W, the typical driving range is approximately 100 km, excluding dead mileage. These vehicles are used for high-frequency deliveries — for example, milk runs or last-mile deliveries — where the routes involve multiple stops within short distances, usually under 100 km. Manoeuvrability is also a key factor. Since it’s a 3W, it can navigate congested city lanes, which becomes an important use case.

If we look at the Storm EV, the LCV, its customers typically require medium to long-distance goods transport. They also require higher payload capacity and larger cargo volume compared to the L5.

What kind of sales channels work for each customer segment?

Our role in sales is really to be present for the customer — whether that’s directly, through a channel partner, or a representative of Euler. We’re working to expand our reach nationwide.

Currently, about 70% of our L5 sales come from retail customers — typically single-driver entrepreneurs or owner-operators. To serve them, we have around 40 channel partners across India, present in about 45 cities. We’re now looking to aggressively grow this to approximately 100 partners within the next quarter. A significant amount of work is being invested in building this network to ensure we remain consistently visible and accessible to our customers. For institutional customers or key accounts, such as 3PL or e-commerce delivery companies, sales are driven in partnership between Euler and the channel partner. The difference lies mainly in execution.

With key accounts, it may involve strategic, pan-India partnerships and ensuring service support at their hubs or locations. With retail customers, it’s about offering the right solution for their use case and being present post-sales. The communication is similar; only the medium changes.

Over the past year, industry data shows strong growth in passenger L5 and early traction in electric LCVs, but little movement in L5 cargo sales. From your perspective, what explains this stagnation in the L5 cargo category?

I feel that part of the stagnation is linked to the changes in purchase subsidies. Earlier, it was ₹10,000 per kilowatt hour of the battery pack — for us, that translated to nearly ₹1 lakh. Now, it has come down to about ₹25,000, which leaves a gap of ₹75,000, leading to higher vehicle prices. That said, this is more of a story from the last financial year. This year should be different because the reset — the subsidy reduction and the transition from FAME 2 to PM e-Drive scheme — has already taken place.

Another factor is the availability of electric LCVs. Earlier, many use cases that were traditionally served by 4Ws were being managed through 3W cargo vehicles — especially in cases where there were mandates to electrify. However, with the introduction of more e-LCV options, particularly in the N1 and N2 segments, customers now have a wider range of choices. Many of the bulk deals that earlier went to 3Ws are now moving towards 4Ws. That’s why we continue to see that 70% of sales in 3Ws come from retail customers rather than large institutional buyers.

However, electrification is inevitable across all segments. The key factor is price parity.

For instance, CNG cargo 3Ws are priced around ₹2.8 lakh today, while electric options start at about ₹4.5 lakh and above. If this gap can be bridged through further development and with more players entering the segment, the pace of electrification will certainly accelerate.

In commercial vehicles, earnings depend on vehicle uptime, making reliability and after-sales support critical. What’s your plan to strengthen aftermarket support?

Good sales don’t end with the transaction — they continue into the post-sales phase. And it’s not just about fleet operators. In the commercial vehicle community, word of mouth is extremely strong. One mistake can seriously damage a brand’s reputation, and information travels faster than any marketing channel.

Our priority is that the customer should feel heard. Problems are inevitable. Real-world applications on Indian roads will always present challenges that may not have been apparent during validation. What matters is how we respond. We don’t just hand over a vehicle and disappear. Whether it means providing a backup vehicle or finding an alternative way to keep their business running, we take ownership of the issue to ensure their earnings continue uninterrupted.

Our entire network operates on the 3S model — sales, service, and spare parts. In every city where we are present, we ensure that a service station is live. We don’t start sales in a location unless the service infrastructure is already in place, as there’s no point in selling a vehicle if we can’t keep it running. This is especially critical in the commercial vehicle segment, where every day — even every minute — directly impacts someone’s income.

Your team mentioned that in FY24, Euler Motors sold around 3,700 vehicles. Since then, you’ve also raised a substantial amount of capital from Hero MotoCorp and other investors. With these developments, how do you aim to become the leading commercial EV player in India?

Our top priority is to expand our presence and coverage across India. We currently operate in approximately 40–45 cities and plan to scale up to 100 cities over the next few months. Alongside this, we are building a strong team, service infrastructure, financing support, and the broader ecosystem needed to fast-track EV adoption.

As a product-first company, we continue to invest heavily in R&D, product development, and expanding our plant capacities — that’s where a significant portion of our funds will be deployed.

Regarding Hero MotoCorp, we are fortunate to have them as partners. They’ve been exploring the EV ecosystem for a while and have invested in other electric mobility companies before us. Their investment in Euler is a strong vote of confidence in our ability to execute. Hero MotoCorp brings deep expertise and operational excellence in sales, distribution, and mobility. We hope to learn from their maturity and apply those strengths at Euler to drive us toward becoming the number one commercial EV player in India.

Purchase incentives have already been reduced and may be reduced further. As an OEM, do you see this reduction as a challenge?

See, it was expected—subsidies cannot remain forever. The real question is how the market will react once they are completely withdrawn, because the customer’s paying capacity doesn’t change. At least in the three-wheeler segment, electrification has already taken off, thanks to that initial policy push. Now, we’re at a tipping point where adoption is increasingly driven by market forces and peer influence, rather than just subsidies alone.

Financing has long been a challenge for commercial EV adoption. Over the last 5–6 years, financing has certainly evolved, but lenders still seek greater transparency—especially around residual battery value and state of health.

From 2018 to the present, it has been a journey in building confidence around vehicle financing for EVs. We have a platform called Shepherd, through which we monitor over 500 data points related to vehicle health. This helps with preventive maintenance and also allows us to flag potential downtime to financers. If we notice that a customer hasn’t driven the vehicle for several days, we proactively reach out to understand the issue. If the customer is out of business, we try to facilitate connections so that they can get back to earning.

On the battery side, we conduct preventive maintenance through software updates, performance checks, and, in some cases, vehicle recalls to ensure optimal uptime and earnings for our customers. These data points are also shared with financers—not just to raise red flags but also to highlight positives. For instance, if a customer is running 200 km a day instead of the expected 120 km, it means he’s likely to break even faster, which reassures lenders.

Euler vehicles are fetching among the highest resale values in the secondary market today. As our vehicles approach 3–4 years on the road, financers work with us to recertify battery health, which helps them sell at a premium.

This Interview was first published in EVreporter Sept 2025 magazine.

Also read: Euler Motors enters passenger EV segment with the launch of ‘NEO by Euler’ at ₹3,09,999