Thank you so much for understanding. We can start the meeting.
Continuing on the EV side, I think there is a great opportunity. I think strength, again, is our design, development and product and the range, and the ability to give the two-wheelers and three-wheelers. We are expecting initially to start with the domestic market with the iQube and then using this product range for the international market.
Ashu, I'll ask one question.
Please.
On the EV strategy itself, I just want to understand your medium- to long-term strategy, right? Let's say, I mean, EV is more margin dilutive, isn't it? Like, I mean, we currently make 10% EBITDA margin, right? Do we think that EV will be able to do the same kind of margin going forward, maybe when we achieve economies, maybe in two years?
See, we already told you. I think the most important thing is getting the customer satisfaction, the customer pull on the product, right? Which you have got in iQube, and I'm pretty confident that the new product is also whatever we are planning to launch is going to delight the market. Once you get the customer satisfaction right, we are pretty confident that the demand lever, which is the revenue lever, that will do extremely well. That's where bit of semiconductor was an issue, but there is improvement. Again, I can tell you this month, like I said, the production is much better. We will try to reach the 10,000 mark, and maybe we will exceed this year around 1,000 per day, which is 25,000 per month. Demand getting it right, which is customer getting delighted about the product, is the priority one.
That we are almost there. Number two is once you have the volume, I can tell you can work on every element of cost, every element of the customer benefit, we can look at it. The varying strategy, even the three versions, whatever you have seen, you have seen the pricing difference, you have seen the convenience and the safety and the new features, whatever we are giving. Customers are willing to pay. Overall, we'll be profitable in the next 24 months. I'm pretty confident even the EV. I don't want to give you guidance on the EBITDA, but definitely, the EBITDA will grow year- after- year in the EV business as well.
Right. What number we are looking at for the breakeven?
Break even, I think we have to put it a little differently. I think we have capacity. What is most important is, like I said, the moment we are able to do, for example, the current iQube and the new products, first of all, gross margin will be positive. The more the scale and the revenue comes, you will be able to get the PBT level positive, the EBITDA level positive. That is the way we look at it.
Right.
Most importantly, hitting the 25,000 mark.
Right.
For which I see only one risk, the semiconductor, working with them very closely. Month after month there is an improvement. I won't deny that. But how quickly we can do that? It is not only in EV. We are seeing the same challenge in the ICE also. It's possibly because of the last year lockdown and couple of big companies like Renesas in Japan who have got the fire accident and the TI which had the flood. There are assignable reasons last year and suddenly they were all closed for 45 days, one block, and then the later another 45 days. When they reopened, they realized that the demand in the consumer durables are also going up.
Two big companies having practically other than this lockdown, another lockdown or another stoppage because of natural calamities and fire. All put together today, any lead time they are talking about is 52 weeks. Okay?
Yeah.
We have given those kinds of projections as well. On top of it, all of you know the kind of delays in containers. I think it's the multiple factors all coming together. Everybody wants better and better business. Even semiconductor companies want to support us.
Right. In terms of external investor, we are reading this, you know, like, you know, always there's some speculation that, how much you're gonna, like, raise for the EV subsidiary. Is there anything happening that side in terms of external investor?
Desikan, you want to say that?
Yeah, yeah. No, no. See, we discussed this last time also. After having incorporated a new subsidiary, we are evaluating various options. We have the board approval and the structuring is happening. I don't know, some news item appeared yesterday. We don't know. We are not commenting on that. We are exploring various options, that's all.
Right. Understand. In terms of this demand, right? We have seen that because of the fire incident that happened in the last one and a half months, EV incrementally didn't do well for the last month. Is that what you think? I mean, at least temporarily, we are seeing the same kind of expectation that.
I told you last time. Last time when I met you, I told that we have a booking of 12,000. Today, I have a booking of 20,000.
Wow. Okay.
What we need to understand is, safety quality, the standards are very critical, and everyone should adhere to it. Okay? This is not something new. I think every customer, any technology, the last thing they want is anything related to safety. We have to constantly work on the area of safety standards and really taking care of the customer needs. This is something we have to always look at it.
Right. In terms of like overall two-wheeler demand, I mean, we are seeing some kind of improvement is happening for last one month or so. Let's say if you're talking about PV or tractor, we have seen I mean, much more improvement. We are not even reached even pre-COVID kind of volume yet, right? How we are seeing going forward demand in terms of industry as well as for ourselves?
See, I think your observation is very valid. The positive news is this year, after two years of lockdown, we had the marriage season, April, May, June.
Yeah.
Marriage season, there is an uptick. Definitely, there is an uptick. The second is thanks to good monsoons and good agricultural produce and MSP, the rural is slowly coming back. Okay? That is a positive news. Please understand the severity in the bottom of the pyramid, where the prices have gone up, but their income is not steady. Self-employed has not got jobs. I think possibly last six months has given a confidence that the Omicron wave three and even whatever is happening today, there is no hospitalization. Slowly the sentiments and the positivity at the bottom of the pyramid is coming, and they also have regular jobs, regular income. I am positive that the rural will start doing well month after month. Okay?
Now, what is most important is we should all recognize that the cost increases due to all the regulations, plus the steel increase, plus the insurance increase, it's a huge, huge increase as a percentage to the on-road price when it comes to two-wheeler. When you compare a tractor, when you compare a truck or this one, it is very, very small, 2%, 3%. The moment you look at something like a two-wheeler, the costs are very, very high. Very, very high. Their income level has not gone to that level. That's why it is taking a little longer time.
Yeah.
Okay? Only thing we need to note down is public transport system is not so robust. There is a need for mobility, so it will come back. We have seen a CAGR of almost 10% in two-wheelers. That 10% will come back. Okay? Unfortunately, these regulation changes and the insurance and the GST all have happened in the last 12-18 quarters, plus the increases now, which is happening now on steel and insurance. All put together, the income increase has not been proportional to the kind of price increases whatever has happened in the two-wheeler side.
Right. We are expecting at least, FY 2023 would be at least like, FY 2020?
Yeah. Possibly, I think this year will be better than FY 2020, is my estimate.
Okay. Understood.
If, like I said, I'm very cautiously optimistic on these lockdowns and the vaccination is definitely helping. The rural agricultural produce will be good. MSPs were good. They will have regular income. That is going to trigger good demand. Okay. I agree that it will be better than somewhere in between 2019 and 2020. That is my estimate.
Right. Like moving back to the like margins, right? Because of all the raw material price increase, and we did price hikes. Are we now done with the almost price hikes and we should be maintaining the margin or?
Price hikes are part and parcel of, you know, this kind of unprecedented raw material cost increases has never happened.
Yeah.
For the last 18 months, I think it has been huge increases. Always there will be some portion of uncovered portion will be there. What we look at is, we can't pass on in every model all the price increases. Certain models, the customers will have the ability to pay. One thing we are able to see is, premium products are doing extremely well. The demand is extremely good, which means people are having money and they are willing to price, they are willing to take it. When I say premium products in our category, Ntorq or Jupiter 125 or Apache series or Raider. All are okay. Unfortunately, in the case of Raider and Apache, we had some setbacks in April and May because of the semiconductor supplies, even in the IC side.
It is becoming a little better in June. Okay? For Apache, May was a little better, June is also better. Raider, it is yet to start. I think premium products, even in two-wheelers, there is a good demand, and people are willing to put the money. It is the entry-level moped to the commuter motorcycles and entry-level scooters where you have the challenge, because their buying power is really, really low. I am pretty confident that with their regular stability in income, what is most importantly stability in income with all this vaccination, we'll help them to come back and buy even the entry-level models.
Right. Okay. I think those are my questions, Sudarshan Venu, Anthony.
Thank you.
Thank you for your answer.
Yeah. Hi. Can I go ahead with the question?
Yes. Sure, Manik. Manik, thank you.
Yeah. Just the continuation on the EV strategy, right? If you could, you know, talk about the e-bike side of things, right? Where you've made a few investments and acquisitions, primarily targeted at the European market. Just a thought process on how, you know, how does that sort of get aligned along with your India EV strategy. Maybe the overall piece, if you could touch base.
I will try to help you people. If you look at our moped to our Indonesia products up to RR 310, we have got an excellent product range. I can say one of the best product range in the industry today. Okay. Indonesia, that's Neo, Bebek, we are also exporting from there. They're also selling in Indonesia, so we have that portfolio. Now, you know, we have come with the iQube, and there is a series of products we are looking at. You will see many more products on the two-wheeler side from EV and also from the three-wheeler side. That is going to be there. You know Norton, which is in the super premium category, which is really super. Now, when you look at the e-cycles, I think there are two purposes.
One, with electrification coming in and our opportunity to get into developed markets like Europe, okay? One of the key things we have seen is the e-cycles are really doing very well there. The CAGR is around 20%. Somebody like Swiss E-Mobility Group, when we took over, I think we get products, we get their omnichannel. Most importantly, we will understand the customer behavior in Europe. Because the moment you understand what triggers them to buy any cycle, okay, what are the decision criteria they look at, I think that is going to help us in a big way. This is number one. Of course, we can also leverage all our EV product portfolio, what is coming from India, for all the developed markets also. Definitely, we will use it for Europe and many other markets.
Overall, if you look at it, this is going to be supplementing or helping in the e-cycle area, okay? Once we understand this market and this one is entering into a geography like Europe. Another one is understanding the behavior of the customers on the e-cycle side. Then these e-cycles can be leveraged to any other country, including India. Overall, that is the overall strategy perspective when we looked at the kind of SCMG or Evo when we looked at investing in those investments for future. All of you know that SCMG is a profitable company, okay? It's going to give us enormous understanding of consumer usage, European market, behavior of the customer, and in the new category called e-cycles.
Sure. Do you think that there is a risk of, you know, trying to sort of, spread it too thin across multiple markets and across multiple segments, rather than probably focusing on the Indian EV space where you already have an established brand?
No, we have separate teams. See, what is most important is you need to have good resources and teams to manage it. India has got a very strong team, and whatever we are developing for Indian markets, as you know, we are using it for the international market in a big way. ICE, you know, how we are leveraging it for the international market. Same thing we will be doing. I think I wish I get more chips and semiconductor available. I think I could have done easily very high volume of iQube and then started into the international market. Today, the biggest constraint is the availability of some of the electronic parts, so eBOM parts. So that is not a problem at all. For whether it is, it is Swiss E-Mobility Group or Norton, there are separate teams.
We can always take the synergy of our R&D design development capability, sourcing capability, Indian capability, supporting these companies. There will be a huge learning, and it is going to be concurrent. Please understand, today's business scenario, you have to be concurrent.
Got it. Sure. Yeah. That was my question. Thank you, and all the best.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Please feel free to unmute and ask your questions. Sir, while we have other questions, if I may push another one. You briefly alluded to export opportunities on EVs. I just wanted to know if you know the same, if there are any differences in terms of products for export markets. Would the same product work in the export markets as well? Or you will be launching separate products for the international markets? And where are these opportunities coming from? If you could just also give some color on that.
See, export country by country, we have to study that. I'm saying the basic backbone will be same. The battery management system can be the ECUs can be, the VCUs can be looked at, depending upon the preference. Of course, local language will be required. There are certain portion, significant portion backbone will be common. Okay? The design element. Okay. Country by country, there are preferences on what type of design elements they want. Okay? Whatever experience we have on the developing markets and whatever we are now learning in Europe through ACMG, all this will be useful. Please remember the K02, K03 with BMW, we have sold more than 100,000 bikes in all the developed markets.
That gives us a huge insight into what type of customer usage, what kind of homologation needs are there, standards are there, safety standards are there. All these are going to help us. Any other clarification?
Yes. If there are no other calls, can we conclude the session?
Sure, sir. Let's give a minute if anyone has any questions.
Hi, sir. Good evening. This is Shyam from Sundaram Mutual Fund. Pleasure talking to you on this forum. Just one question. On the existing export business that we have, we have done extremely well if we look at a five-year period, whether it be our own numbers or from an exports from India perspective on the two-wheeler side as well, we have done extremely well. Now, given where we are today, sir, what are the growth legs for the next three years?
If you can talk about it, which geographies from a new geography penetration or from, you know, addition of distributors, what we have done in the past few years, what further growth legs are there in exports to support, you know, 13%-15% kind of a volume growth over a three-year period? Thank you.
I'll divide, Shyam, into three or four buckets. First, I think what you said is absolutely right. Last five years, the exports from India CAGR is around 9%, and we have done 18% kind of a CAGR. Okay? Let me take the existing products. There are existing products like Apache, HLX series, three-wheeler, then scooters, especially Ntorq, and now the Jupiter 125. These are products which can be leveraged to much higher volume in many markets, because these are markets where we are seeing huge potential to grow for the future. Okay? And if I take key markets like Africa, I think we have done extremely well. We are either number one or number two in many of these markets.
My prediction is in 10 years' time, Africa is going to be like India. Okay? Roads are going to be there. Consumers are becoming literate. They are investing in many of the education and college. I think they are becoming developed. You will see urbanization happening. Africa is going to be the growth market. You will see the CAGR. Most importantly, you are seeing political stability. You are also seeing the foreign exchange availability in many markets. Of course, the fuel prices are stable. Of course, the war is little bit creating some problem, but I'm assuming that will settle in few days. Now, coming to the areas where we are now focusing are ASEAN region. Okay?
We have got distributors in all the places, Indonesia or Philippines or Myanmar or this entire area. Okay? Asia, you know, two markets are closed, but at some point of time they have to open, which is Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Okay? Good markets for us. At some point of time, we will see it coming back. Now, the clear focus from our side is how do we take ASEAN to the next level? Because these are excellent markets where industry is doing well. We have started our journey. But given our learning in Africa, there is a huge potential for us to succeed in these markets. Okay? Remember, we have our Skutik and Bebek also. Today, month after month, we are able to do 10,000 from Indonesia. Okay?
Now, there's a huge upside to take it to 15,000 and 20,000 in the future with the current products itself. Now, coming to LATAM, it's a big market, huge market. Okay? There is a huge opportunity. Middle East and ASEAN is another market. Sorry, LATAM is another market where we have a huge opportunity and where we can significantly gain a market share. Now, coming to new products. Raider, for example. Okay? It's not only in India. It's doing extremely well in the international market. Ntorq, we have started now marketing. See, one of the strengths of TVS is you have to have new products which are very clearly looking at the customer needs and customer space and understanding. The moment you put it, demand is there. So we will complement between existing products, existing market, and the typical two by two, you know?
Invest behind the kind of products for the future. Okay? That is going to definitely help us to grow same way, better than the industry in the next three years. I promise you that.
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Sir, one other question, if I may, ask on the now, from a profitability perspective, you have done multiple things. You have been talking about it in the last, you know, several years. You know, from a fixed cost getting absorbed over a larger base. All that we are seeing now in a very well-orchestrated manner in our results per se. Are there further legs to these fixed costs, they're being absorbed? Because the reason I'm asking is now the domestic market will open up much strongly. Does that mean that our marketing spends specifically in terms of brand building, et cetera, will that have to go up per se? What are your thoughts on that?
See the opportunity, for example, whether it's a Raider or Jupiter 125, look at the volumes. It is taking a vertical takeoff. That is going to help us disproportionate growth in the top line. The moment you see disproportionate top-line increases, that is going to help us in amortizing that cost, you know, across every fixed cost element. Also, on top of it, thanks to the top line being robust, we are able to look at multiple sources from single sources in the past. The moment you get multiple sources, you get some sourcing advantage, you know that. You know? We are also now looking at in a big way what kind of modularity we can bring in. Because modularity can really bring down the costs. Okay?
There is a huge element of design, and we have significantly reduced the import content now. It is a combination. I'm a firm believer that first you grow your top line disproportionately. Unfortunately, what has happened is last two years of lockdown and some chip availability or some availability is creating lot of headwinds for us. Otherwise, you would have seen our EBITDA much, much better than whatever you have seen, I promise you that. The headwinds have been huge, and some of them are unplanned, really unplanned. You have to look at one thing, if you invest in the right products in the right segment, customers are there, Shyam.
Got it.
That we will continue to do, and that is going to give us huge benefit when things are. It's not always going to be headwind. There will be tailwind, I promise you that.
Got it, sir. Sir, one last point. Just from a balance sheet perspective, we have spoken about, you know, getting external capital for some of these new growth initiatives, specifically on the EV side per se, and even from monetizing our credit solutions business as well. If you can give any update on that part a little bit. Because the reason I'm asking is, we are at a stage where our balance sheet looks to be getting more leveraged, going into the next three years, and there are pulls for demands for capital in from multiple directions therein. How is that progress?
Sure, Shyam. See, it's very consistent in my reply. We are exploring various options. We are in a very advanced stage. We will let you know once everything is finalized, both in the finance business as well as in the EV.
The overall new investments, whatever we have made, you have seen TVS, it's a great success. You have seen PT TVS last two years is excellent profit. I can tell you that the opportunity to grow Indonesia business and export from there is huge scale, both on the two-wheeler side and the three-wheeler. All these are going to help us, and this constitute almost 70% of our investments. Where we have invested in something like SCMG, it's a profitable company.
Right.
It is going to give us huge learning in terms of Europe and the consumers and their behaviors. Fortunately for us, we have an excellent EV portfolio. All of us, all of you know that the new EV two-wheeler, the CE 02 two-wheeler which BMW we are developing, we are designing also. We are designing, developing for them as well as for us, for the global market. All these are going to be really going to give us huge benefit going forward.
Sure, sir. The external environment changing has not impacted in any way our plans to get external capital.
It has. It's the only one change which has affected is the semiconductor and this container.
Okay. No, sir, I was not talking from capital markets and the-
No, no.
Good. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.
Actually, TVS TS and all, the SEPM will tell you that last three months, okay, zero delinquency. That kind of scenario we have not seen.
Yeah, absolutely right.
Great. Wonderful, sir. Best wishes. Thank you.
My request to some of you is, all of you should visit whenever you can, to TVS Motor. Okay? Let us know in advance so that we can be present here to interact with you. Seeing is believing.
Thanks, sir. Are there any further questions?
We will join the next session.
Yes, sir. If you have any concluding remarks.
I think the strength of our continued strategy on focusing on the customer and definitely even in the EV side, that is what is very clearly seen from the consumer side on iQube. It will do very well in the market, and we are confident of ramping up to 10,000 and moving towards the 25,000. You will see in the next 24 months really high quality new technology product launches in the EV space. Okay. I see all of you know we will continue to invest. We will grow ahead of the industry, both in domestic and international, with a very strong portfolio of our brands and products. I'm pretty confident that you know we will continue to deliver the EBITDA promises, whatever we have given going forward.
Thanks for a very comprehensive session, sir. On behalf of Morgan Stanley.
Thank you.
I thank all the corporates and investors.
Finally, anybody who is interested in this group, whenever you are visiting Bangalore, kindly let us know, or Chennai, so we can host you. Thank you.
Sure, sir. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Hi, Vijeeth is an operator from OpenExchange. The meeting will start shortly. We are awaiting for the corporates to be in. Thank you.
Hello, everyone. A very warm welcome to the Morgan Stanley Virtual India Summit. I've actually dialed from two lines, so you may see my voice a little distorted. But nonetheless, I'm very pleased to have TVS Motor Company management here with us today. The company is represented by Mr. K.N. Radhakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer.
Good evening, everyone.
He's joined by Mr. K. Gopala Desikan, the Group Chief Financial Officer.
Morning.
Given we have almost 18 clients on the call, in case you have a question, then you can either use raise your hand option and then unmute yourself, or you can just, in case the queue is empty, you can just unmute and start. With that, I think I would hand over the floor to the management to say some opening remarks, and then we'll move to Q&A. Thank you.
I think extremely happy to meet all of you. I think you know that we have strong product range in the portfolio, and we always invest in new product development. We have seen the Raider and the Jupiter 125 and Apache, and all the premiumization is also helping. Overall, we have grown ahead of the industry, both in domestic and in international market. Our continued focus on premiumization and also volume growth and also looking at cost reduction initiatives and focusing on fixed cost has helped us to cross 10% consistently while we had huge headwinds, especially in the last four, five quarters.
On the EV side, you know that we have really very clear vision, and we have put our iQube, and recently we have launched the two versions of iQube, and also the third version is likely to be available soon, iQube ST version. While I'm talking, we have more than 20,000 booking of iQube. iQube, customers loves it, and it is one of the finest product in the EV space in India. In this year we'll be launching a few more products, focusing on different customer segments. We are also planning to have a complete portfolio, both two-wheeler and three-wheeler EV, in the range of 5 kW-25 kW, which will be there in the market in the next 24 months.
We have a very clear partnership strategy because we want to give a wide and a reliable charging infrastructure for our EV consumers in India. Recently, we have collaborated with Jio-bp, and all of you know that we already have got vibrant widespread access to the TVS, Tata Power and CESL. We are pretty confident that the EV industry will grow, and we have a subsidiary formed on the EV business. This is to create better flexibility and focus. I think the strength of the company is in design, development and our own R&D capability. That is exactly what is seen in the success of TVS. Of course, we always focus on the customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction leading to the top-line growth ahead of the industry.
In the last couple of years, our focused work on the profitability side has helped us to really take the EBITDA 10%. I am pretty confident that we will march ahead with the product range, both in ICE, in domestic market, international market, as well as in the EV space.
Thanks, sir, for the opening remark. If any investor has a question, please unmute and you can ask the question. Yeah, Nikunj, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I have a couple of questions. Starting off with our investments in the overall EV space. When I look at our investments, which we have done in FY22 in terms of for 80% stake in EGO Movement, we have invested in Norton Motorcycles. We have invested in Swiss E-Mobility Group. Just wanted to get your thought process behind going for more international exposure on the EV side, and at the same time even going aggressive on the EV side in the Indian context. Just wanted to know the thought process in terms of capital allocation from an overall EV perspective. How should one look at it going forward from here?
Brilliant, Nikunj. I think, you know TVS, if I look at today, the India ICE space, we have starting from Moped up to RR 310. Very good range. We have continuously invested in the new product development, like the recent launches like Raider, Jupiter 125. If you recollect, we have launched Apache, various versions from 160 up to 200 cc and 310. Same way, Ntorq. The strength of the company is really looking for the customer segments and understanding and really plugging the space with excellent products which delight the customer. This is number one. Now, when I look at Indonesia, we have Skutik, Bebek, that is supplementing it in a very, very good way in the range. All are in the ICE space.
Like you said, iQube is the first product in the EV space. We predicted that scooters is one area which is likely to, more and more customers in the urban area are looking at the EV space. So that's why we started with iQube, a scooter. We are seeing excellent pull in the market. You have seen two launches recently, and one more will come. One more product, the esteemed product of iQube will come in the market. Few more will come in the next four quarters, both in the two-wheeler space and the three-wheeler space. Now, coming to the overall portfolio, you have the Norton on one end, which is really super premium. Okay? It's a brand which is unique. It is, it is special, and it is all about developed markets. Okay?
We are currently with ICE space, we are present in 70 developing markets. Okay? Of course, with the G 310 R, G 310 GS relationship with BMW, we have sold more than 100,000 bikes. They are all in the developed markets. Now, coming to the e-cycles, if I look at it, EV entry level, you know, there is a huge opportunity in terms of understanding Europe, so, and the consumer behavior. So that is the reason we invested behind Swiss E-Mobility Group, EGO Movement. And Swiss E-Mobility Group has got products in this space, also omni-channel. So you will understand the behavior of the consumer, what it is they are looking at. I'm pretty confident, once we know that fully, we can also leverage the EV products, what we are designing and developing in India.
Many of these products can be used there. One is to understand Europe as a developed market. Another one is to leverage our existing EV, whatever we are developing here. Equally, when we understand the e-cycles in a much better way, I think market by market, we can also look at, because we have the ability to look at what is the core? What is the customer requirement? What we can fine-tune country by country. It's a portfolio which is starting from e-cycles up to motorcycles. You look at it that way.
Okay.
Especially getting into developed markets now. So far, the game has been in the developing markets and leveraging ICE capability in TVS. Now we are looking at in totality.
Okay. Is it fair to understand that going forward, since now we have covered from the premium bikes to e-cycles, I mean, from an investment perspective, the intensity of investments in these companies plus any new in any new ventures beyond this space will be limited. Is it a fair understanding or you would still cover more gray space, white spaces in this space?
See, first I'll answer about the white spaces in the ICE area, and then I'll come to EV, and then I'll come to e-cycles. Please understand. Before that, I want to only clarify that FMCG is a profitable business already. Okay?
Mm-hmm.
Now, coming to, if you look at ICE space, like I said, TVS Raider or Jupiter 125, these are unique spaces. When consumers in the 100 cc or 110 cc, they always look at upgradation, you know. Because especially in urban, the income levels are better, so they will go for premiumization. I'll give you another analogy. We launched Ntorq. Okay? Typically, if you look at Jupiter, all versions of Jupiter, the young customers still prefer better power, slightly powerful bikes, leaner, stylish, sharp. So, the customer segments, you have to constantly look at the spaces. Those white spaces where there is opportunity, we will continue to invest, Nikunj. Whether it is ICE or even the EV. Okay?
Sure. That's helpful. My last question, and I'll join back into the queue, is in terms of we have a commendable work in terms of the cost reduction initiatives which we kind of envisaged, I think, three, four years back. We have been able to get our margin 10%+. From here on, how much more optimization and efficiency benefit can still accrue to us, in your sense?
There is excellent opportunity. Our belief is to be number one in customer satisfaction, that we always focus on that. That leads to growing the top line faster than the industry. That is happening. Unfortunately, what has happened for us is products like Raider or Apache, semiconductor is little bit affecting. May is better, June is expecting to be much better. You leverage your products to grow your top line in a big way. It has got three purposes. One, the fixed cost gets amortized because I don't think the fixed costs are going to be higher because we are selling more, number one.
Mm-hmm.
Number two, when you sell more, that gives us an opportunity to get scale benefits. Okay?
Yeah.
Number three, the last couple of years, two things we have done. We have reduced our import content. Okay? We also introduced some new suppliers because the volumes are there.
Yeah.
Whenever you bring a new supplier, you can get some better negotiation with the current supplier. It's a combination of. Now we are looking at, in a big way, when the volumes are going up, how do we look at modularity. How do we look at part commonization. How do you look at weight. It's a constant and continuous journey. I'm pretty confident that the double digit has just started.
Okay. Thanks. That's very helpful. I'll join back into the queue.
Yeah, Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, please go ahead.
Hi, thank you. I wanted to get an update on your expectations of how profitability could evolve in EV, in exports, especially in EV as subsidies come down and product evolves, but also in exports.
See the subsidies in exports, you know, it was there, it was not there for some time. Now it has come in the form of
RoDTEP.
DTT, DD, uh-
RoDTEP.
RoDTEP. Significantly it has come down. In fact, what we look at is we have an excellent portfolio. How do we become very strong in every market? Today, 100,000 customers are liking us every month. We feel that there is a huge headroom. Recently we have launched the Raider. The acceptance in many markets are very good. We have Ntorq, which is a unique kind of a scooter attracting the young people. Product is our strength. We always believe in customer delight through service parts, genuine parts. Because in two-wheeler business, the first service comes in 15 days or 20 days. These are the special strategies or focus we always believe in.
Now, coming to EV profitability, most importantly, you have to get the customer delight, which we have got in iQube. Okay? When we addressed all of you sometime after the last quarter, the booking was about 10,000. Today when I am talking to you, it's almost 20,000 with these new launches . Unfortunately, you know, we want to go to 10,000 productions, while the semiconductor companies are definitely supporting us, still there are some challenges because, again, semiconductor, when I look at it, they had in lockdown one and lockdown two, they had stoppage of almost 45 days. Then two companies, big companies, you know, one company in Japan, they had fire accident, and one company in US, TI, had flood.
Unfortunately, what has happened is today anything you talk about to them, it is 52 weeks of lead time. They are very much partnering with us. I'm pretty confident that a couple of months we will be there at 10,000. But what is most important for us is build beyond that. This 10,000 we can exit this year by 25,000. The benefit is even the variants you would have seen, features are different, pricing is different, okay? And this gives us profitability on one side, and the scale gives us profitability. And we are able to better negotiate with the suppliers on overall costs. Most importantly, to build the scale in EV, which with the product range, what we are planning, we are confident.
that's why I said in a couple of years' time, we will be profitable in EV, completely EV business as well.
Okay. It sounds like with accumulated experience and accumulated scale, you expect operational gearing to benefit and profitability to improve.
Absolutely.
So therefore it also-
Most importantly is the strength of TVS is even in iQube, battery management system is ours. The controllers are ours. ECUs are ours. The motor controller is ours. We collaborate jointly with the supplier, okay? It's not buy some part, some assemblies, and give it, okay? The benefit is if you completely know the design, then you can look at what all things you can do with the variants. You can look at the platforms, how do we leverage it for the future. Like, huge opportunities.
Okay. My follow-up question has to do with what you've just been explaining. I've admired your focus and competence in design and development. Do you see execution risk, or do you see any other risk at all in TVS going after quite a lot of things and trying to do a great job in very many things? You are going after all sorts of segments. You're the best in chasing Bajaj in export markets. You launched iQube. Is that maybe spreading your great engineering and managerial talent a bit thin?
I want to clarify one thing, whether it is Norton or Swiss E-Mobility Group or EGO Movement, they have separate resources. Okay? The core of that learning, there is a strong team of R&D here, and we can definitely learn from each other, but there are separate resources to manage that. Okay? Coming to India, I think we have tremendous capability in ICE, and now it is the time assuming that everything is EV. We are really investing behind EV. Okay?
Okay.
We are supplementing people on the software side, electronic side. There are certain unique experiences on the digital side because these are, you know, you need to supplement. You cannot build the capability alone. Also, we partner with many competent people globally, you know?
Understood.
It can be universities, it can be individuals. It is a collective kind of most important thing we put it in people and the core competence, how do we build it internally?
Okay. Over the next three to five years, are we getting to a stage where you slowdown in identifying and building scale in new segments? Or will there be additional product lines, additional markets, additional segments you will identify and target and invest in?
I think most importantly what we have seen is constantly give the customer delight and look at the space where there is an opportunity to come up with the products.
Okay.
Delight the existing customer with variants because customers are demanding. Every new year. See, they're if you look at the smartphone industry, they want something new. Okay? One of the things we have to constantly look at is how do we keep delighting and updated in line with what the customer experiences are. There is no choice. Okay? I don't know, you call it a slowdown, speed up, updated, best in class. You can call whichever way. Okay?
Okay.
I'm of the view that always you put yourself in the shoes of the customer and look at not automotive experience. You look at other experience of the, for example, every consumer today looks at the smartphone. Okay. They want everything like smartphone. They want that speed also.
Okay.
We have to be constantly at it. That's why I said put always customer at the center of the table and look at whatever they want. Keep doing it. I am not saying 100% we are going to be right everywhere, okay? Somewhere there will be mistakes. Somewhere we will learn. Never make the same mistake second time.
Okay. Understood. Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
Hi, Dipen. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you. Am I audible?
Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you for the opportunity. I wanted to understand from you know, when I look at your past three to four years of performance, you've done tremendously well across various segments and continuously gain market share as well as improve profitability. It's a very commendable thing when you look at the stress during the COVID times across various companies and industries. You know, TVS has, you know, kind of been, you know, an outlier and, you know, have done the great job. If you can elaborate, you know, between urban and rural and between various segments, including motorcycles, scooters, and your product portfolio, what were the gaps, you know, which you had plugged in? What are the areas which you have addressed, which has helped you know, gain this market share as well as profitability?
Having done this now, you know, reaching at this level now of when I look at the next three to five years of journey from here, what is it that you know will help you? What are the areas you are looking at to continuously, you know, gain further market share and profitability?
I'll put it into three buckets.
Sure.
First is, you have to whatever you give best in class to the customer, okay? Never compromise on that. Always give best in class to the customer. Both in sales experience, service experience, product experience, you have to be at it, okay? Now you have to give digital experience as well, because today's youngsters, they are on the ball, okay? This is number one. Number two, you would have seen if I look at last three years, for example, I was also personally worried when we had last two years a lot of, you know, lockdowns. How are we going to make sure that we deliver new products? Our teams have done a brilliant job. We have learned a new technique of work from home or work digitally, clear many things digitally.
I think it's the core competence we have now. Whether it is Raider or Jupiter 125, both are great success. Great means really great success, both domestically as well as internationally. We have to constantly look at the spaces where there is opportunity from the point of view of the consumer, okay? Urban markets, people want to keep upgrading, okay? In the urban markets, since you brought rural and urban, if you ask me urban, money is not the problem, okay? Even this pandemic period, all the premium products have done well. Supply is the problem. Semiconductor has been the problem. Container has been the problem, okay? Whereas if you go to the rural, the biggest problem is lockdowns. Self-employed, significant proportion, no job, no income. They have demand, they have mobility needs.
The moment you don't have income, the first priority goes for your food and education of the children, you know? They have been postponing. I am of the view that April, May, June, first time marriage season. The pandemic now, whatever number, no hospitalization, which is a positive news. Okay, the vaccination going at the current level is brilliant. I am of the view India will have the rural coming back in a systematic and a good way. Month after month, we will see the confidence building up. You know, month after month, you will see the monsoon has been very good. The rural produce has been good. MSP support has been good.
I am of the view that multiplier effect will start now coming in, and slowly you will see the rural sentiments and the positivity coming up. That is good for India and definitely good for the two-wheeler category.
Sure. In case of rural, what are your thoughts on the significant increase in the cost of ownership, both from the point of view of the vehicle prices as well as the running costs, you know, looking at the way fuel prices have gone up. While in urban, what you highlighted that money is not a problem, affordability is not a big issue. People are willing to, you know, pay that higher price, you know, including the running cost. By and large, things are not affected. It is more of a supply related issue. How does that work out when you look at the rural customer who is relatively more price sensitive and, you know, cost conscious?
Fair point. Fair, absolutely fair point. Please remember today, for example, all our products are BS6, are all EFI. Far better fuel efficiency, far better durability, okay, far better convenience in riding, okay? Those are customer benefits. I agree that the regulation cost plus material cost plus insurance cost are really putting a lot of challenge to these customers. I'm of the view that last two years they have been postponing the new buy, number one. Number two, the mobility needs are there. What I have seen is in the self-employed, I say, typically if you take a moped customer, earlier he used to make INR 100. Now everywhere people are also willing to give another INR 10, INR 20, you know. He can earn his money from INR 100 to INR 150, INR 130, okay?
I think unfortunately, what has happened is everything has happened in the 12-18 quarters, one after the other, including this pandemic slowdown. I think give them little bit time, you will see rural coming back. Thanks to the government, lot of improvement in infrastructure. Good roads. You travel anywhere in the rural part of India, you are able to see good roads. Good road is first portion of starting the mobility, and it makes the self-employed to earn more.
Sure. My second question is on the you know related to the one of the earlier question on the quantum of investments you know that we've seen you know which your company has made over the last couple of years and across various you know verticals. Looking at the size of the balance sheet and the quantum of this incremental investment and the cumulative investment you know that we have currently made what is the kind of indication of the payback period that you would want to share with us?
See, overall investments made, I think 70% has started paying back very well, whether it is TVS Credit Services or PT TVS Indonesia, okay? The FMG, whatever we have acquired now, it's a profitable company. It's going to really make us understand the European market, the consumers. It's an omni-channel. We will. They have products. So, we are going to have complete. So far, we are not in the developed markets, please understand. All our exports has been to the developing markets. All our products has been only in the ICE side. EV in India, we have started with iQube, okay? We are of the view that now is the time where you have to look at as a global complete arena. There also you have to look at priority and say which products, what can supplement to the range what you have.
I'm pretty confident that all these investments are going to give very good returns in the future like we have seen in TVS Credit Services and PT TVS.
Would you like to give some indicative timeline of the payback period, three years, four years or whatever?
See, I already said EV, I'm confident that in 24 months it will be a profitable business.
Right. Okay. Sorry. Lastly, on the EV, you know, there was some news article that you're looking at raising some INR 5,000 crore and, you know, if you can just, you know, give us some sense on that. Or what is the structure that you're planning for the EV entity? Are you kind of looking at putting it in a separate subsidiary or, you know, raise investment-
We have formed a subsidiary which is already communicated. We are in the process of exploring various opportunities. We don't want to comment on a news item that appeared yesterday or day before. We are exploring various options and opportunities, not only for EV, but also for our finance arm. We will come back to you at an appropriate time, definitely.
Thank you so much, and wish you all the best.
Thank you.
Hi, Ajit, please. Hi, Ajit, please go ahead.
Yeah. Good evening, sir. First of all, congratulations on the launch of two good products on the EV side. Continuing on the EV, you know, if I see our distribution, you know, we did expand with the launch of new products. How many? I see the website reaches about 85 cities. What was the distribution before the product and how is it now? Based on our analysis of demography of the target market, what's the distribution we can reach in this quarter half year, end of 2024?
See, 33 cities just before this launch, we had 33 cities. Primarily because of the ramp up speed, and the ramp up speed was only because of semiconductor. I did explain about semiconductor and the challenges, but now the semiconductor companies are able to ramp up, support us, so I'm pretty confident that we'll move to 10,000 and possibly we will try to exceed this year by 25,000 kind of a number per month. We are with the confidence of getting higher delivery, we are now expanding. Our ambition is to go all India and maybe start some few countries, you know, because many export countries have shown interest in this product.
We have not given to any one of them, because we have to first to satisfy all the Indian customers, okay. Start giving them with a reasonable delivery period. That is the focus going to be.
As I said, you are at 85 cities now, given our understanding, you know, some of the rural markets might not be ready for such products. The distribution can go up to what? To 50 cities or something, at least 1.5 years?
Practically, for example, like ICE in India, we are in every town, every city, every rural area. Okay? First we will cover all the urban areas and semi-urban. The structure will follow exactly like that.
Okay. The potential is more than triple. That's what you're saying? The distribution.
Your voice is little bit breaking. Sorry for that. Can you?
Yeah. Yeah. Just a minute. Is it better now?
Yeah, little better.
Also, can it go up to like 250-300 cities in a matter of years' time?
All areas. See, once we have 25,000, we will cover all cities in India.
Cool. End of the three-wheeler EV, any timelines you would like to share for three-
Three-wheeler EV, you know, we are already tied up with CESL. We will be supplying them, and then we will be launching into the market. Very soon, we will be launching into the market.
Okay. Just fiscal, et cetera, you're saying? Can we, can we see the launch this fiscal for the three-wheeler EVs?
You will see in this financial year. That's what I'm saying.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
If any of the other investors have a question, then please unmute yourself and go ahead. This is just one question that we get on electric vehicles. You know, there's always this discussion about the cannibalization risk, because it can be seen as a cannibalization risk. At the same time, it can be seen as an opportunity to expand further. I do understand that for now, the anecdotal data is fairly limited, since you are sitting with almost 20,000 order book, and you know, the ramp up will be very certain. A, your production targets on EV that you talked about, 10,000, are you on track to ramp up that in the coming by July or something?
Yeah. We are on track because we are getting more and more confidence from the semiconductor suppliers.
Okay.
Otherwise, everything is fine. On cannibalization, my view is that urban markets you will see the scooter category expanding, you know?
Mm-hmm.
What is going to happen is, today the scooter category is about 30%-33% of the total two-wheeler market. I'm of the view that it will go to even 40%, 45%. Okay? I say it from my experience because, like I said, scooter is a place which is going to electrification is going to start, okay? I'm not saying motorcycle it will not happen, but it is going to start because of the flexibility, the convenience it gives, multiple usages from home. You know, father to wife to father to mother to daughter to son, everybody can use it and flexible on ranges. All benefits are there in. And in typically women, you know, various dress codes, it is comfortable in a scooter. Okay?
I'm of the view that more than the cannibalization, the category is going to expand. Scooter category is going to expand, which is going to be positive for companies like us. Of course, this is a great opportunity to seize the developing market for companies like TVS. Because even in our export, we are only in the 70 developing markets. With EV coming in, we can go to all developed markets as well.
Sir, even within that, you know, one of the things we've seen globally is that the legacy companies usually face this dilemma of selling EVs aggressively in the starting, right? Because if you sell a lot, then there is a margin pressure. But at the same time, if you don't, then you end up missing out on being a market leader in a new category. How do you see the balance like with you?
The way we see it is a little different. You know, any new project, for example, when we went into three-wheeler business, couple of years it took for us to come up with a product and understand the distribution and couple of two, three years we made loss. Okay? Today it is very, very profitable. Same way, simply I will say when we started the Mysore plant or Himachal plant, same learning. When we went to Indonesia, you know the story.
Yeah.
Today it is profitable. Like the TVS is also an investment for the future. It's a technology, it is a new technology, so you will incur some investment. We don't treat this as losses. These are investments for greater success in the future. That is the way we look at it.
Sir, what about electric motorcycle? You know, because that is also like we've seen that everybody in the industry has taken a lead on the scooter side, and we understand the form factor argument, the fact that it's a very urban product. What is your take on electric motorcycles space?
See, it will happen, because there are enthusiasts, for example, in premium category or certain executive category. It will happen. See, EV is a technology change. Okay? So, something will happen earlier, something will happen little later. Okay? So, we are very clear that every aspect of area, EV will be there. Timing is the only change, you know. Which will come first and which will come second and third, like that.
Sir, recently in the electric vehicle space, we've seen a lot of news flow about safety concerns from the customer side. At company level, TVS is anyways known for its engineering capability. Have you seen a little bit of a win in the market because of that, the customers are now going back to reliable brands versus trying out, you know, these new brands?
See, anybody who gives a good quality and safety wins. I'm a firm believer in that. Invest in good quality standards, safety standards, and keep working not only in the product experience, sales experience, service experience, taking care of the customer. I think every technology has got every challenge. I will look at it that way.
No doubt. Sir, just winding up, you know, in fact we have another five minutes or so if any of the investors have a question, please unmute yourself and ask. Just as a, you know, like a last few questions . One is when you look at FY 2023, which is the segment where you are the most bullish on in terms of growth? Because we've seen, we are seeing exports doing well, we are seeing domestic also after a very tough time now. You know, supply chains easing, doing well. Which segment do you think is going to lead on growth in the coming year?
I think you have said already exports will continue to do well. Premium segments in India will do well. I am also saying that the rural will come back this year, okay? Because of the stability of income, most importantly income. No hospitalization, because the fear of this COVID with the vaccination, I think it is moving away. With good monsoon and the agricultural produce prices becoming stable, I think the confidence level. Because India, if you look at it, rural majority is self-employed. Okay? They have to go out and work. Then only they will earn money, daily money.
Correct.
Schools reopen. Another good news is schools reopening, you know. Schools reopening is a good news for scooter.
Yeah. Yeah. That is very suitable in that case, yeah.
There are positive ticks. Okay? There is only one negative tick, which is the cost going up, the regulations, and the insurance going up. These are all challenges. Unfortunately, all have bundled up and happened in the last 12-18 quarters. Out of that, eight quarters has been pandemic. If it was spaced out, nobody would have realized it. Okay? I'm pretty confident two-wheelers in the long run in India will do well. Exports market, you know, wherever we are present, it is going to do well.
Sir, overall, just on the cost pressures, we've seen a pretty good performance. In fact, across industry, like March quarter, everybody had record high EBITDA per unit or gross profit per unit. There's a little bit of a lagged impact on commodity hit that comes through. We've started to see some cool off on commodity side. Where exactly are things in terms of commodity headwind versus price hikes taken?
See this, commodity versus price. If you build good brands, I think pricing is not a problem, okay? I'm yet to see one consumer saying that, "I will not allow prices to go up." Okay? The challenge is two, according to me. The semiconductor, even in the ICE sector. For example, April, May, we had a little bit problem on semiconductor availability for Raider and Apache. They're our premium products, you know. You have to supply to the market because these consumers are very young, they want it. There is always something which is not passed on to the customer. We can always look at a varying strategy. We can look at cost reduction. The volume goes up, many things we can work out.
I am not so much worried about headwinds on commodity. It will be there, so we have to. Please understand, I'm not so much worried about every quarter. I look at the long term, you know. One quarter you are not able to increase prices. Yeah, come on, wait. You focus on the new products and give it to the market and do better than the industry. It'll come. It'll come. It's not a rocket science in my view. I think what is most important is building good brands, customer getting delighted, good revenue. Top line is there, every line we can make it happen.
Yeah. Yeah. That is actually exactly what we've seen in the last few years, right? Right from your market share, the way it has grown in scooters and motorcycles, how you've been able to support.
Five years back, how many hit products we had? Today, how many hit products we have? We have Apache.
Yeah.
We have Ntorq, we have Jupiter, we have now Jupiter 125, we have Raider, HLX series, TVS King. Come on. I think the role of all of us is to build very, very strong brands.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that clearly has been at the center of your growth story. I think with that, we've also run out of time.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone who's coming near Bangalore or you are coming here, kindly do let us know. You can visit, spend some time in the factory.
Yeah.
Tell us in advance so that we can host you. I can be there, and I can interact with you people.
Yeah, no, thanks a lot.
Thank you all for your interest.
Thanks a lot, sir.
Thank you.
Everyone, have a good day ahead.
Thank you. Thank you so much.