Made in India, For India - How Matter is Developing a Whole Electric Mobility Ecosystem - CEO, Mohal Lalbhai

Back in 2018, the founders of Ahmedabad-based Matter were trying to to understand why electric mobility wasn’t being adopted enough in a price-conscious market like India, On digging deeper, a much larger problem presented itself.

"We realised that India is a very special country and it requires somebody to really solve India's problems,” Mohal Lalbhai, CEO, Matter, tells Auto Futures.

“In India, there were products coming in from other countries, which are being built with certain sensibilities that catered to the requirements of the country of origin. But India is very diverse, where one can witness 0 to 3,000 metres in altitude, -20° to 50° Celsius in temperature and 5% to 100% humidity, all at the same time in the different parts of the country. There is a vast breadth of environmental factors to consider. And then there were the different use cases - urban commute and rural commute,” he explains.

Matter EV was founded to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility in India by solving the country’s real problems. The company took a conscious call to develop core technologies for India, within India. In fact, Matter has been developing everything, right from motors, battery packs, vehicle electronics, telematics, connected features, software, among other things, in-house over the course of the last four years. This has been a key differentiator for the company in terms of how it was able to adapt and evolve systems to suit specific needs.

“To give you an example, we had to introduce liquid cooling technology on the Aera, our first product,” he says.

This is just one example of Matter’s commitment to real problems that affect everyday consumers. Another good example is the introduction of the gearbox to its EVs, another innovative solution that is practically unheard of in EVs in general.

“2019 was mostly spent building the team and making the first component-level prototypes. But just a couple of months in, the pandemic hit, and our plans of making the first vehicle got pushed. We built our first prototype in the summer of 2020, but after a couple of months of testing, we soon realised that liquid cooling is going to be essential to the weather, especially given the temperatures that are going to be thrown at the product.”

In 2019, India sold close to 21 million two-wheelers, both electric and ICE. Out of that, only about 6 to 7 million were scooters, while the rest were motorcycles, which make up two-third of India's two-wheeler market demand. There are quite a few companies that manufacture electric scooters, but the number of companies addressing the motorcycle segment is significantly lesser in number, which opens up a world of opportunities for a company like Matter.

“We're not talking about people who recreationally use an EV, we're talking about people who actively choose to switch to electric because of reduced operational costs or the environmental impact of it,” he says.

“2021 was a year where we went through a significant amount of testing, and in 2022, based on our results, we took a call to move towards production. In November 2022, we actually unveiled the product for the first time. In January 2023, we were present at the Auto Expo with the Aera and two future concepts. In 2023, we are going to start delivering Aera to the consumers and the journey onwards is yet to be written.”

One of the core areas that Matter is focused on is consumer experience.

"Despite the changing core technology, we still wanted people to feel a sense of familiarity, whether it is the transmission, the position of the gearbox, the way the radiator and the cooling system work, the way the torque is felt, or the ergonomics of the vehicle. If there is a learning curve for a consumer, it would be hard for somebody to figure it out. This is why the Aera has been creating ripples in the market,” says Lalbhai.

An Electric Motorcycle With a Manual Transmission 

The Aera runs on a 10.5 kW motor giving a top speed of 100-105 km/hr and 0-60 time in less than six seconds. It has a four-speed manual transmission, and runs on a 5kWh battery pack. The battery has a range of about 125 kilometres on a single charge and also features a liquid cooling system, which cools the battery, the motor and all the electronic systems that are on the vehicle.

On board is a charger, which allows you to charge the vehicle from any 5A socket. You can charge the vehicle from 0 to 100 in about 4.5 hours. Moreover, the dashboard has a 7-inch touchscreen, which has navigation provided by MapMyIndia, access to all connectivity suites, Bluetooth, music and call control, as well as a host of other features which up until now were only available in the four-wheeler segment.

The Aera's manual transmission is a unique addition to an electric motorcycle.

“Motors have a certain sweet spot in efficiency, where at a particular operating point, they are the most efficient. If I don’t have a transmission, I only reach this at a speed of about 25 to 40 km/h; at other times, I am not as efficient. But the minute I have a four-speed gearbox, I have the same band from the first to the fourth gear. The net efficiency of the powertrain goes up significantly going from your average city-driving speed, which is anywhere between 10 and 50-60 km/h," explains Lalbhai.

"From a consumer stand-point, a motorcycle without a transmission is no different to a scooter, and that is where there is a certain disconnect from the motorcycling community. They really want control over the powertrain, and want to be able to change gears and deliver torque, especially on rough terrains,” he adds.

Matter is set to open bookings soon for the Aera, with deliveries slated for late summer, 2023. It aims to have dealerships pan-India, but is looking to start with a couple of major cities for now.

“We have two facilities currently operating in Ahmedabad. The first is a 50,000 square feet R&D facility, which is the centre of all innovation and technology development, and has seen significant investments in terms of equipment, laboratories and state-of-the-art machinery. The other is a production facility, which has an annual capacity of 60,000 vehicles.”

Multiple Products in The Pipeline

Apart from Matter Electric, Matter also built its energy wing, Matter Energy, in late 2019, when it built its first battery management systems and battery packs for internal testing. Back then, companies were still importing batteries, and the few people that knew about Matter or had heard about the company through word-of-mouth, began to approach it for battery solutions.

Once the core technology around the battery piece was built in November 2020, the company decided to create a vertical to support alternative uses of lithium-ion batteries. And, so, Matter Energy was formed with the core idea of exploring non two-wheeler applications of batteries.

Matter is also working on the two concepts that it had showcased at the Auto Expo - Concept EXE and Concept UT, both of which feature swappable battery technologies. The company is also working with Luminous under a strategic agreement on a home dock or home inverter, where these swappable batteries have a dual purpose.

As Lalbhai describes it, this product is a swappable battery, which feels almost like carrying energy in a backpack, where consumers can decide whether to power their home or vehicle with it. Moving forward, the idea is that the ecosystem would also be complemented by swapping stations, which act like buffers on the grid.

“We want to have pointed, curated solutions for consumers, because no two consumers will have the same set of problems. With the Aera, the concepts and the platform, we are really focusing on the 100 to 200cc segment. We will have multiple products down the road, but we will be majorly focusing on this space. Our approach is always going to be technology-first. We call ourselves a product-tech company, because we are delivering solutions using our arsenal of technologies."

“We have also started exploratory work on cell technology, where we’re trying to understand the nuances of tropical climate and how it affects cells, considering that our ambient temperatures reach 50°celsius. We are really trying to figure out the best ways to extend battery life and this works well with the fact that India has just discovered lithium. There's a lot of opportunity in the energy space going ahead,” he concludes.