technologies and their adaptation for wider applications normally tdb supports either by taking a 25 percent equity in the company or through a soft loan amounting to 50 percent of the project cost or a grant but the secretary says that since finding an exit route in case of an equity stake is cumbersome soft loan is the most popular option this attracts an interest of 5 percent per annum meanwhile the charger that has been developed by ampere vehicles will cost between rs 1750 to rs 3250 along with the other components the full electric powertrain will be priced between between rs 800012000 ampere has 2 manufacturing facilities and an rd centre at coimbatore where the technology for the charger has been locally developed by a team of 25 engineers the plant has a production capacity of making 15000 chargers annually that can be scaled up to 50000 to 100000 units per annum based on market demand in the first year of business ampere plans to manufacture 10000 chargers and then slowly ramp upwards the charger can be charged in a 5 ampere socket and with a 68 hour charging can go 60 km hemalatha annamalai founder and ceo of ampere vehicles says that the chargers are intelligent and use the microcontrollerbased intelligent battery charger system they come with an automatic shutdown facility after full charge as well as over temperature shutdown with auto recovery short circuit protection with auto recovery and overload protection this prevents heating up and burning of the product during power fluctuations the charger is also reusable after repair since 30 to 50 percent of the cost of an electric vehicle is battery utmost care needs to be taken during charging and discharging an intelligent charger performs this activity in an effective way by predicting the health of the battery at any given point of time she adds she recounts how ampere approached tdb who had visited coimbatore for a road show they were looking for companies who can make components currently being imported and gave us a soft loan to develop and commercialise the parts now that the charger is complete we are moving to the motor and controller ampere is initially targeting ecycles and escooters with the chargers the motor and controller are 95 percent ready for meeting 350 watt needs and will be upscaled for meeting requirements of 800 watts annamalai pegs the current market for ebikes and scooters between 45 lakh of which 90 percent are electric scooters the market will grow depending on government incentives in another 2 years the tipping point will come rd for the charger started in 2010 and has taken 5 years for fruition ampere has applied for 3 patents that have been provisionally approved for charger functionality overall the company plans to file for 15 patents the charger has already received iso certification and undergone testing by government agencies this development assumes further significance given indias energy import bill of around 150 billion which is