In an interview with TimesTech, Vijay Kumar, Founder & CEO, Tsuyo Manufacturing, the conversation explored how Tsuyo is closing critical gaps in India’s commercial EV space through a fully indigenous and vertically integrated powertrain ecosystem. Vijay explained how in-house technology, rare-earth-free motor design, advanced R&D, and state partnerships are helping the company deliver rugged, high-wattage systems built for Indian duty cycles. He also discussed Tsuyo’s role in ICE-to-EV conversion and its growing collaborations with leading OEMs.
Read the full interview here:
TimesTech: Tsuyo is building end-to-end indigenous powertrain capabilities across motors, drives, converters, instrument clusters, gearboxes, and e-axles. What gaps in India’s commercial EV ecosystem are you aiming to solve through this vertically integrated approach?
Vijay: India’s commercial EV ecosystem still faces fundamental gaps, from fragmented system integration to an unreliable domestic supply base and solutions that aren’t engineered for India’s demanding duty cycles. Our vertically integrated approach is designed to solve these challenges at the source.
Most OEMs today rely on multiple vendors for motors, drives, gearboxes, converters, and software. This fragmented approach often leads to integration delays, inconsistent performance, complex after sales issues and higher development & validation effort. Tsuyo solves this by offering a fully unified, single-window powertrain, delivering a truly plug-and-play solution that removes these complexities.
India also lacks a strong, high-quality supply chain for heavy-duty EV components. Our indigenous design and manufacturing capabilities ensure predictable supply, faster turnaround, and reliable service support, which are critical for commercial fleets.
Because every component is developed in-house, we can engineer specifically for Indian conditions—high temperatures, overloading, rough terrain, and long operating hours. This results in superior durability, thermal performance, and lifecycle efficiency. Vertical integration also allows us to maintain tight cost control, optimize the Bill of Materials, and avoid multi-vendor mark-ups, ensuring OEMs receive premium, patented technology at competitive prices.
On the technology front, Tsuyo has already developed ready-to-deploy platforms such as multiphase ACIM, SynRM, ferrite-assisted, and hybrid-arrayed magnet topologies. These are fully validated, tested under varying duty cycles, and compatible with rare-earth-free (HRE-free) solutions, providing OEMs a path toward safer, sustainable, and reliable powertrain supply chains.
TimesTech: The recent INR 40 crore Pre-Series A round is enabling both a greenfield manufacturing plant and an advanced R&D centre. How will these new facilities accelerate your ability to develop high-wattage powertrains for heavy commercial vehicles?
Vijay: The new facilities are central to scaling our high-wattage powertrain roadmap for heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs). The greenfield manufacturing plant is being purpose-built to handle advanced motor architectures, such as SRM, multiphase ACIM, IPM, SynRM, and high-voltage axial flux platforms, which are essential for the demanding duty cycles of HCVs. This plant will allow us to industrialise these technologies at scale with globally benchmarked quality, precision, and process control.
Complementing this, the new R&D centre will close critical gaps in power electronics, embedded systems, and vehicle-level software capabilities. It will house advanced testing rigs, rapid prototyping tools, and high-end simulation software that dramatically shorten our development and validation cycle for high-wattage motors, drives, and next-generation VCUs.
By integrating deep-tech R&D with a vertically aligned manufacturing ecosystem, we will be able to accelerate innovation, enhance reliability, and ensure faster commercialisation of high-performance systems—while still maintaining cost efficiency for Indian and global OEMs. Together, these facilities give us the horsepower to deliver rugged, thermally efficient, high-power solutions tailored for heavy-duty transport and to do so with the speed, agility, and quality that the commercial vehicle segment demands.
TimesTech: With technologies ranging from rare-earth-free motors to hybrid-magnet designs and powertrains up to 600 kW, what are the core deep-tech innovations that differentiate Tsuyo from global and domestic competitors?
Vijay: Tsuyo’s core differentiation stems from a deep-tech foundation that seamlessly connects materials innovation, sorted and secured supply chain, advanced motor architectures, embedded intelligence, and full powertrain integration – an end-to-end capability rare even among global players and almost unheard of in India.
Our journey begins at the materials level, where we are developing rare-earth-free and hybrid-magnet motor technologies. These demand complex electromagnetic design, material substitution, and rigorous validation, giving us a long-term technological edge that goes far beyond assembly-driven manufacturing. Building on this foundation, we have developed multi-architecture motor platforms, including SRM, multiphase ACIM, IPM, SynRM, and axial-flux systems, engineered for high-wattage applications up to 600 kW (supported by partnerships with CETL and LvKON). This breadth allows us to create duty-cycle-specific solutions for heavy commercial vehicles, a capability few global competitors offer at this level.
To translate these advanced motor technologies into real-world performance, we rely on deep vertical integration across motors, drives, converters, instrument clusters, gearboxes, axles, and e-axles. Spanning from 0.5 kW to 250 kW in-house (and up to 600 kW with partners), this integration enables optimized plug-and-play powertrains, tighter quality control, and significantly faster development cycles for OEMs such as Mahindra, Volvo Eicher, and Sonalika.
This entire hardware stack is then elevated by our work in vehicle-level intelligence. Our next-generation VCUs and drives feature modular software layers, advanced diagnostics, and FOTA capabilities, critical for real-time fleet optimisation and long-term performance reliability.
Together, these interconnected innovations,supported by 29 patentable technologies, position Tsuyo not just as a component supplier but as a truly world-class, deep-tech powertrain leader emerging from India.
TimesTech: Tsuyo has been awarded a major MeitY project for ICE-to-EV conversion in heavy commercial vehicles. What makes Tsuyo the only fully indigenous player capable of leading this programme, and what impact do you foresee on India’s decarbonisation goals?
Vijay: TSUYO stands out as the only fully indigenous player capable of leading this programme because we have built India-first EV powertrain technology from the ground up, right here in the country. Our engineering, design, prototyping, and validation capabilities are all developed in-house, and our ecosystem is rooted in domestic suppliers, R&D institutions, and manufacturing partners. This gives us an agility and contextual understanding that global players often lack, especially in the heavy-duty and commercial vehicle segment.
Our recognition by MeitY further validates this. We were selected not just for our technical capabilities but for our proven delivery. In fact, we recently completed a MeitY-sponsored project with IIT-Delhi where we successfully designed and developed a prototype that achieved TRL-7 qualification, a major milestone demonstrating that India is ready to build advanced powertrain systems at global standards. This demonstrates our ability to translate complex research into deployable, road-ready solutions.
Being fully indigenous also means we can customise EV powertrain solutions specifically for Indian duty cycles, environmental conditions, and commercial economics. Heavy vehicles in India operate in high-load, high-stress conditions, terrain, temperature, stop-and-go traffic—and our powertrain systems are designed precisely for those realities.
Impact on India’s decarbonisation goals: The conversion of heavy commercial vehicles is one of the biggest levers India has for cutting emissions. While passenger EVs get more visibility, heavy vehicles account for a disproportionately large share of fuel consumption and carbon output. By enabling scalable ICE-to-EV conversion:
- India can rapidly accelerate EV penetration without waiting for full replacement cycles.
- Fleet operators can achieve electrification at lower upfront costs, removing one of the biggest barriers.
- Domestic manufacturing of powertrain systems strengthens India’s localisation roadmap, making “Make in India” real at the deepest technical layer.
- A homegrown player like TSUYO reduces import dependence and builds long-term technology sovereignty in a strategic sector.
With India already crossing 5 million EVs on the road and with EV sales rising sharply under schemes like PM e-DRIVE, this programme can be a catalyst. If India aims to push EV penetration from ~8% today to 30% by 2030, heavy-vehicle electrification will be essential, and TSUYO is uniquely positioned to drive that shift.
TimesTech: You recently signed an LoI with the Government of Karnataka to set up a manufacturing plant and commercial-vehicle testing track. How do state partnerships like this accelerate innovation, industry adoption, and localised EV manufacturing?
Vijay: The LoI with the Government of Karnataka is a major catalyst for TSUYO, not just in expanding capacity, but in strengthening India’s EV manufacturing ecosystem in a deeply localised and scalable way. State partnerships like this provide the right mix of policy support, infrastructure, and industry connections, helping innovation move from lab to commercial deployment faster.
Karnataka allows us to build a world-class manufacturing hub for high-wattage powertrains, ensuring robust, high-performance systems with precise process control and consistent quality, critical for OEMs seeking reliability and speed. The dedicated commercial-vehicle testing track further accelerates development by enabling rigorous validation across real-world conditions, shortening design–prototype–test cycles, and speeding up readiness for market deployment.
These partnerships also reinforce India’s localisation agenda, attracting suppliers, partners, and talent to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that supports cost-efficient production and faster adoption of commercial EVs.
In short, state-supported centres like this reduce friction for deep-tech startups, allowing TSUYO to innovate, manufacture, and deliver high-performance, made-in-India powertrain solutions at scale. The Karnataka partnership not only accelerates our growth but also helps fast-track India’s EV adoption, positioning the country as a hub for advanced, localised EV manufacturing.
TimesTech: You already work with major OEMs like Mahindra, Volvo Eicher, and Sonalika. What drives OEMs to partner with Tsuyo, and how do you see these relationships evolving as India’s commercial mobility rapidly electrifies?
Vijay: OEMs are drawn to Tsuyo because we offer end-to-end, vertically integrated EV powertrain solutions that are purpose-built for the Indian market. Unlike conventional suppliers who provide piecemeal components, we control the entire stack, from motor design and drives to gearboxes, axles, and embedded software. This ensures seamless system integration, high reliability, and faster development cycles, which are critical for OEMs operating in the heavy commercial segment.
Our deep indigenous capabilities, 29 patentable innovations, rare-earth-free motor technology, modular and scalable designs, and domain-specific Bill of Materials (BOM), allow OEMs to access cutting-edge technology that is both cost-effective and sustainable. Additionally, our local focus enables consistent supply, easy after-sales support, and rapid responsiveness to market or regulatory changes. For OEMs like Mahindra, Volvo Eicher, and Sonalika, this translates into a differentiated product offering, faster time-to-market, and greater confidence in electrifying their fleets.
Looking ahead, as India’s commercial mobility rapidly electrifies, these relationships will deepen and evolve. We foresee closer collaboration on co-development of next-generation powertrains, advanced Vehicle Control Units (VCUs) with Over-the-Air (FOTA) updates, and high-wattage motors for heavy-duty applications. OEMs will increasingly rely on Tsuyo not just as a supplier, but as a strategic technology partner, enabling them to meet India’s ambitious EV adoption targets while maintaining cost efficiency and operational reliability .
In essence, the Tsuyo-OEM partnership model is built on trust, innovation, and adaptability, which will only grow stronger as the electrification journey accelerates.
