India’s electric mobility transition is moving beyond the question of replacing internal-combustion engines with batteries. For commercial vehicle manufacturers, the bigger challenge lies in building an ecosystem that can deliver affordability, uptime, reliable technology, charging infrastructure, financing, after-sales support and long-term business viability.

At the centre of this transition is Dr. Uday Narang, Founder and Chairman of Omega Seiki Mobility (OSM), who entered the electric vehicle sector with a larger ambition: to build an indigenous electric mobility manufacturing ecosystem that could eventually compete on global markets.

For Narang, the opportunity was never simply about launching electric vehicles. It was about reducing India’s dependence on imported technology, developing domestic manufacturing capabilities and creating commercially viable mobility solutions for drivers and fleet operators.

Speaking as part of Bharat Ke Super Founders with Indian Startup Times, Narang discusses OSM’s evolution, its association-led growth strategy, the economics of commercial EVs, localisation, customer experience, emerging technologies, policy priorities and his vision of building an Indian mobility technology company with global relevance.

Building an Indian EV Champion

Narang’s decision to enter the EV sector came from his belief that India should not repeat the cycle of becoming dependent on imported technologies.

Having spent years in business, he had witnessed India’s dependence on imports across several industries. As electric mobility began emerging as a major opportunity, he saw the need to develop products, technology and manufacturing capabilities within the country rather than simply importing electric vehicles and assembling them locally.

This became the foundation for Omega Seiki Mobility.

At the same time, Narang recognised the distinct economics of commercial mobility. Commercial vehicles operate extensively every day, making fuel and maintenance significant components of operating costs. Electrification, therefore, could potentially improve fleet economics while helping address urban pollution.

For Narang, the ambition was to build an Indian company capable of designing, manufacturing and eventually exporting electric commercial vehicles.

“EVs were never just about replacing an internal-combustion engine with a battery,” he explains. The larger objective was to create an Indian EV champion capable of building manufacturing capabilities, reducing import dependence and taking Indian electric mobility technology to global markets.

That philosophy also influenced OSM’s early approach. Rather than prioritising capital raising, the company focused on products, manufacturing and customer value.

Adapting to a Diverse Commercial EV Market

As India’s EV ecosystem has matured, OSM has continued to evolve its product strategy.

Narang compares this approach to Zara, where different designs and choices are created for different customer preferences. He believes commercial mobility requires a similar philosophy because customers have fundamentally different operating requirements.

One fleet may prioritise range, another may value fast charging, while another may need battery swapping to maximise uptime.

OSM has therefore developed a broad portfolio with multiple battery and energy solutions, including fixed batteries, fast charging and swapping, while serving different cargo and passenger applications.

For Narang, this ability to evolve is critical.

“Change with the times, otherwise time will change you.”

The company has expanded from cargo applications into passenger mobility, experimented with different battery technologies and charging solutions, and continued to explore new applications.

But product evolution is only one part of the strategy. Narang believes collaboration is equally important.

The EV industry spans batteries, charging, swapping, financing, technology, energy and infrastructure, making it difficult for any single company to build the complete ecosystem independently. OSM has consequently pursued partnerships that bring complementary capabilities into its platform.

Its collaborations across battery technology, energy and swapping ecosystems reflect this approach, including the integration of Honda’s battery-swapping ecosystem with its Rage+ platform.

For Narang, staying ahead is therefore not simply about launching new vehicles. It is about continuously understanding what customers need today, anticipating what they will need tomorrow and identifying the right partners to deliver it.

Treating the EV as a Business Asset

One of the fundamental differences between passenger and commercial EVs, according to Narang, is the role the vehicle plays in the customer’s life.

For a commercial customer, the vehicle is an income-generating business asset. Every hour it remains off the road can translate into lost earnings.

This makes uptime central to OSM’s approach.

Rather than treating the vehicle as a standalone product, the company focuses on the wider operating ecosystem. Different battery capacities, range options, fixed charging, fast charging and swapping are designed to accommodate different commercial use cases.

Technology partnerships have also played a role in improving fleet economics. OSM’s collaboration with Clean Electric, for instance, has focused on fast charging, battery life and asset utilisation for e-commerce and logistics applications.

Battery swapping is another important part of the company’s strategy. Through its association with Indofast and Honda Power Pack Energy, OSM is looking to expand access to swapping infrastructure across key cities.

Ultimately, however, Narang believes customers are evaluating a much simpler question: Will the vehicle make my business more profitable?

That brings total cost of ownership into focus, encompassing energy costs, maintenance, uptime, battery utilisation, financing and resale value.

“We don’t want to sell an electric vehicle; we want to provide a complete mobility solution,” Narang says.

For commercial customers, range and battery performance matter, but the ultimate measure is whether the vehicle remains productive.

“Uptime is everything.”

Affordability Beyond the Purchase Price

Narang believes affordability in commercial EVs should not be defined simply by the upfront purchase price.

Instead, it needs to be measured across the entire operating life of the vehicle.

A fleet operator must consider how much the vehicle costs to operate, how much it can earn, how quickly the investment can be recovered and how its running and maintenance costs compare with conventional alternatives.

This is where OSM focuses on the relationship between innovation, quality and economics.

The company offers different battery capacities, range configurations and charging technologies so customers can select solutions suited to their specific requirements rather than paying for technology they may not need.

Narang also points to the inherent operating advantages of electric drivetrains, including lower energy and maintenance costs.

Localisation and scale are equally important. Greater domestic manufacturing and stronger supply chains can improve efficiency and help bring technology to customers at better economics.

For Narang, innovation and affordability are not competing objectives.

“The best innovation is the one that improves the customer’s economics.”

OSM’s objective, therefore, is not to build the cheapest EV in the market. It is to build vehicles that make the strongest commercial case for the customer.

Scaling Through Manufacturing, Localisation and Partnerships

As OSM has expanded across vehicle categories and geographies, Narang says the company has focused on scaling capabilities before volumes.

The company’s growth strategy rests on three pillars: manufacturing excellence, localisation and partnerships.

Its manufacturing footprint across Faridabad and Pune is designed to support production closer to demand while strengthening supply-chain efficiency and quality control.

Localisation is another core priority. Narang believes that building an Indian EV champion requires more than assembling imported components. It requires developing domestic capabilities across the broader automotive and EV supply chain.

OSM’s association with the Anglian Omega Group also provides access to capabilities across automotive components, steel and manufacturing.

International expansion follows a similar philosophy. After developing capabilities in India, OSM has begun taking its products and technologies into overseas markets. Its manufacturing facility in the UAE is intended to serve as a regional hub for the Middle East and North Africa while extending Indian engineering and manufacturing capabilities internationally.

Yet Narang sees people, service networks and processes as equally important to successful scale.

The company has been expanding its dealer and service network, including its presence in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Its UNOXpress operations provide direct exposure to real-world fleet performance across more than 100 cities.

His philosophy remains straightforward:

“Scale the capabilities before you scale the volumes.”

For Narang, operational excellence means becoming better as the company becomes bigger, without losing agility or customer focus.

The Power of an Association-Led EV Ecosystem

Collaboration is one of the strongest recurring themes in Narang’s vision for OSM.

He believes the EV industry is too capital-intensive, technology-driven and rapidly changing for companies to build every component of the ecosystem independently.

OSM has therefore adopted an association-led model across batteries, powertrains, charging, swapping, financing, technology and manufacturing.

Battery technology partnerships allow the company to access specialised expertise in areas such as fast charging, battery life and performance while continuing to strengthen localisation.

In powertrains, partnerships have helped OSM work towards greater domestic manufacturing capabilities.

Financing is another critical component. Through its association with cKers Finance, OSM has sought to improve access to financing for electric three-wheelers, recognising that affordability and credit availability can directly influence adoption.

Infrastructure, meanwhile, requires an ecosystem-wide approach.

Narang believes charging and swapping infrastructure must expand beyond major metros and reach Tier-II and Tier-III cities, where commercial EV adoption has significant potential.

He describes the larger objective as building the “village around the vehicle” — an ecosystem in which customers can purchase, finance, charge or swap, maintain and earn from their vehicles.

“Collaboration over competition” is, in his view, one of the defining requirements for the EV industry.

What India Needs From EV Policy

Narang credits government initiatives such as FAME, PLI and PM E-DRIVE with helping establish the foundation for India’s electric mobility industry.

However, he believes the next phase needs to move beyond vehicle purchase incentives towards ecosystem development.

The first priority is policy stability and predictability. EV manufacturing and infrastructure require significant long-term investments, making consistent policy frameworks important for companies and investors.

The second is charging and swapping infrastructure. While government support for public charging infrastructure is important, Narang believes deployment must extend beyond metropolitan centres.

He places particular emphasis on Tier-II and Tier-III cities, which he believes will be critical to India’s economic and energy transition.

The third priority is commercial EV financing. Since these vehicles generate income for their owners, Narang believes lenders should develop financing models that account for the economics and repayment potential of electric assets rather than relying entirely on frameworks designed for internal-combustion vehicles.

Deep localisation is another priority.

India, he argues, should not only manufacture more EVs but also increasingly develop and manufacture the technologies that power them — including batteries, power electronics, motors, controllers and battery management systems.

His policy wishlist can therefore be distilled into five priorities: stable policies, deeper localisation, easier financing, faster infrastructure deployment and greater focus on Tier-II and Tier-III India.

In his view, the first phase of India’s EV journey was about creating the market. The next phase must focus on building the ecosystem that can transform India into a global EV manufacturing and technology powerhouse.

Moving Customer Experience Beyond the Vehicle

As EV adoption matures, customers are increasingly evaluating reliability, uptime, service and profitability alongside sustainability.

Narang views this shift positively because it aligns with OSM’s philosophy that selling a vehicle is only the beginning of the customer relationship.

The company is working on battery performance, range, charging options, durability and different configurations while simultaneously strengthening its after-sales infrastructure.

Its growing dealer and service network, Company-Owned, Company-Operated service centres and collaboration with partners such as ReadyAssist are designed to strengthen service quality and roadside support.

The company is also expanding service capabilities into Tier-II and Tier-III cities.

Another important element is feedback. OSM uses real-world vehicle performance and customer experience to inform engineering, manufacturing, R&D and service decisions, creating a feedback loop between the customer and the organisation.

Warranty propositions are also being strengthened to provide greater confidence to customers transitioning to electric mobility, including a lifetime battery warranty on select three-wheelers.

Going forward, Narang expects connected diagnostics, fleet monitoring and predictive maintenance to play an increasingly important role.

For him, customer experience is ultimately about dependability.

The goal is for customers to know that their OSM vehicle will help them earn consistently and that the company will be there when support is required.

Turning Setbacks Into Data

Building an EV manufacturer in an emerging ecosystem has involved significant challenges.

For Narang, one of the earliest challenges was convincing stakeholders that an Indian company could build a serious electric commercial vehicle business at a time when the ecosystem was still developing.

He was also entering manufacturing and electric mobility after spending years in finance.

OSM had to navigate supply-chain constraints, component quality issues, evolving technology, customer acceptance and limited infrastructure. Localisation presented its own difficulties because many components lacked mature domestic ecosystems.

The company also had to operate without relying on large amounts of external capital during its early years, making resource allocation and partnerships particularly important.

Narang’s response was to treat every setback as information.

“Every setback is data.”

A failed component, customer complaint or underperforming technology became an opportunity to learn and adapt.

This approach is closely linked to his broader philosophy of evolving with changing circumstances. Rather than assuming the company had all the answers, OSM learned from customers, partners, its manufacturing operations and its failures.

Those challenges reinforced another belief: an EV company cannot be built alone.

For Narang, the toughest moments ultimately helped OSM become more agile and resilient.

“You don’t build a company by avoiding problems; you build it by refusing to be defeated by them.”

Making Sustainability a Business Principle

Narang views ESG as something that must be integrated into the business rather than treated as a separate initiative.

For an EV manufacturer, sustainability extends beyond the use of electric vehicles. It includes manufacturing, sourcing, supply chains, battery lifecycle management and the social impact of the business.

Localisation is therefore an important part of OSM’s sustainability philosophy. Developing domestic suppliers can strengthen supply-chain resilience while reducing dependence on long-distance sourcing.

The company is also focused on resource efficiency, waste reduction and improving energy efficiency within manufacturing operations.

Battery lifecycle management represents another emerging priority, particularly around second-life applications, recycling and responsible battery management.

The social dimension is equally important. Electric commercial mobility affects drivers, fleet operators, technicians, suppliers and communities, making employment generation and technical skill development part of the broader impact.

But Narang adds another dimension that he believes is often overlooked: the sustainability of the business itself.

OSM, he says, has achieved both PAT and EBITDA positivity, which he considers an important component of long-term sustainability.

A business cannot remain sustainable if it continuously consumes capital without developing a path to profitability.

“A green product needs a green business model behind it.”

For OSM, sustainability therefore combines environmental responsibility, social impact, operational resilience and financial sustainability.

Building Smarter Mobility Through AI and Autonomy

Narang sees the future vehicle as something far more sophisticated than a machine that simply transports people or goods.

Connected mobility, telematics, battery analytics, artificial intelligence and automation can turn vehicles into intelligent mobility platforms capable of generating real-time insights into vehicle health, energy consumption, utilisation and driver behaviour.

But his approach remains grounded in commercial value.

Technology, he believes, should solve real problems and produce measurable outcomes for customers.

One of OSM’s most notable technology initiatives is OSM Swayamgati, which the company describes as a production-ready autonomous electric three-wheeler.

Available in passenger and cargo variants, the vehicle uses LiDAR, AI-powered obstacle detection, cameras, smart sensors and GPS to operate on pre-mapped routes without a driver. With a 10.3 kWh battery and claimed range of up to 120 km, it is designed for controlled environments such as campuses, airports, industrial parks, SEZs and logistics facilities.

For Narang, autonomy is not simply a technological demonstration. It represents an opportunity to improve safety, productivity, predictability and utilisation in commercial applications.

He believes the future of mobility will emerge from the convergence of electric, connected, intelligent and autonomous technologies.

AI can optimise routes and fleets, battery analytics can improve energy management, predictive diagnostics can reduce downtime and automation can transform both vehicles and manufacturing.

The objective is ultimately larger than making a vehicle smarter.

“We don’t want to build technology that simply makes a vehicle smarter; we want to build technology that makes the entire business smarter.”

A Five-to-Ten-Year Vision for OSM

Looking ahead, Narang’s ambition extends beyond making OSM a larger electric vehicle manufacturer.

He wants Omega Seiki Mobility to become an Indian mobility technology and manufacturing company with global relevance.

That vision involves deeper capabilities across batteries, powertrains, electronics, software, AI and autonomous mobility, alongside greater intellectual property and manufacturing capabilities in India.

Scale will remain important, but Narang emphasises responsible and profitable growth.

He believes electric mobility must reach beyond India’s metros and become commercially viable in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Building the infrastructure, partnerships and products required for these markets will be an important part of OSM’s long-term journey.

At the same time, the company intends to take Indian technology and manufacturing into international markets and build a globally recognised brand.

The association-led approach will continue to play a central role, with partnerships across technology, energy, financing, infrastructure and manufacturing helping accelerate the company’s ambitions.

Ultimately, Narang’s vision is to build an Indian EV champion that lasts for generations — one recognised not only for the number of vehicles it produces, but also for the technology it creates, the jobs and capabilities it builds, the businesses it strengthens and its contribution to India’s manufacturing and energy-independence story.

The philosophy that has guided OSM from the beginning remains at the heart of that vision:

Build in India. Innovate in India. Create value for India. And increasingly take that innovation to the world.

For Dr. Uday Narang, the future of Omega Seiki Mobility is therefore not simply about electrifying transportation. It is about helping India build the capabilities to shape the next generation of global mobility.

Interview By : Arushi Agarwal