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CASE IV.2. THE 'JUGAAD' INNOVATION IN INDIA THE CASE OF AMPERE

VEHICLE 1

Chapter · August 2019

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Gayathri Sivasubramanian
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CASE IV.2.

THE ‘JUGAAD’ INNOVATION IN INDIA

THE CASE OF AMPERE VEHICLE1

Kumar, a farmer aged 40, starts from his farm at Alandurai, a small village in the south Indian
district of Coimbatore, every alternate morning. He travels in his bike, along the lush fields of
the Siruvani road to nearby markets in order to supply his farm’s produce to rural traders.
Shanthi who runs a petty shop has two daughters and owns a two-wheeler from 2010. After
sendingher daughters to schools, she travels along the length and breadth of the small towns in
Erode district to supply her special “Murukku” (a south Indian snack) to the bakeries and
teashops.These are common scenes in any agrarian community, where farmers and small traders
travel to sell their produce. The surprising fact here is that they useelectric vehicles and make a
difference. Their sense of freedom and convenience come in a sustainable way. The examples
given hererefer to the widespread usage of Ampere vehicles in the rural regions of India. Ampere
Vehicles, a humble start up from Coimbatore had enabled this sustainable revolution through
their motto of affordable personal mobility through electric two wheelers.

The depletion of fossil fuels and the awareness towards sustainability had made many
countries to opt for cleaner fuels. The Government of India, in this regard, had set a 2030 target
to migrate completely to electric vehicles. There are lot of questions about the feasibility of this
target and the available supporting eco system for this transition. The passenger vehicle segment
is yet to upgrade to this technology, except for a few players like Mahindra& Mahindra, who
manufactures and sells electric cars.While electric cars need some time to be sold among the
mass, electric two wheelers had already made a good start.“Hero electric”leads the market with
its brand recognition and wide distribution. The other players include Avon, Ather energy,
ElectroTherm, Eco motors, Tork Motors, Tunwal E bike and Lohia Auto. Apart from this, there
are small companies like Ampere vehicles, who have made a big difference, thus preparing the
nation for the giant leap.
In 2008, while the two-wheeler market was flooded by conventional vehicles, Ampere
vehicles entered the blue ocean of electric vehicles where there was no competition and immense
opportunity. A blue ocean refers to the unknown or undeveloped market space which remains

1The case was written byDr.S.Gayathri

unexplored by the competitors.HemalathaAnnamalai, the CEO and founder of Ampere vehicles
made up her mind to create a whole new manufacturing sector that did not exist before and that
which benefits the society, in the long run. Her initial customers were farmers and rural
traderswho were able to save much on their fuel costs. It is worth mentioning to note that
RatanTata,had invested an undisclosed amount in Ampere in mid 2015. Ampere is the first
automobile start-up investment for Mr. Tata, who conceived Nano, one of the world’s cheapest
cars. Mr.Tatais believed to have earned more than twice in this investment and in September
2018, had sold his entire equity holding in Ampere Vehicles to Mumbai-based small engine
manufacturer Greaves Cotton.

Benefits of Electric Two wheelers

Licence not Registration not Zero Affordable charging

Eco friendly
required required maintenance and no fuel cost

Coimbatore city, called the Manchester of Tamilnadu for its cotton production,is unique
in its own way with a rich blend of agriculture, technology and tradition. The people of this area
are very industrious and frugal in nature, with their simple ways of life. When Ampere Vehicles
marketed the electric bikes among the farmers, it was not an easy job for them. They worked
with the farmers and small traders at the grass root level to make them understand the value
creation and savings out of their products.The farmers and the local people were worried about
the durability of the vehicle, its fitness to all seasons, charging options and availability of spare
parts. Hemalatha, being a patient and determined player took the task of educating them on all
aspects. She made them understand the concepts of zero maintenance, savings in fuel cost, need
for non registration, licence free and other associated benefits. Ampere had been successful in
fulfilling the unmet basic need of the farmers, namely “affordable transportation”.

The company has

now 150 dealers across ten
states with an annual
production of 60,000
vehicles. The company
plans to scale up to a
production of 100,000
vehicles in the next 3 to 4
years.Ampere Vehicles has
emerged triumphantly in
identifying the untapped
market demand, created its
own market space and
pioneered the widespread manufacturing and sales of electric two wheelers.
 Value innovation of Blue Ocean strategy

Image Source : https://www.blueoceanstrategy.com/tools/value-innovation/

The buyer value for Ampere Vehicles comes in the form of savings in the fuel and
maintenance cost for the customers. When it comes to achieving reduction in cost for the
company, the company has defied the fossil fuel technology and adopted the battery technology.
The company is engaged in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing of battery
operated electric cycles, two wheelers, three wheelers and custom-built vehicles. They
manufacture their own chargers; AC-DC convertors and Intelligent chip integrated lead acid
battery that provides double the life of regular batteries at minimal maintenance.
The rural population of India, supported by the developmental policies of the
Government is a viable and promising market with the potential to spend on new categories like
education, health care and transportation. Ampere vehicles started its journey of innovation from
the villages and had now attained systematic level of progress through its dedicated research and
development on consumer needs, design and manufacturing and scalability. For an emerging
economy like India, innovation should benefit the people across all levels of social strata. The
rural market here is strongly poised offering space for many players.
Jugaad had been the traditional way of referring to innovation in India. Jugaad innovation
is a frugal way of innovation involving improvisation of the existing resources. Jugaad when
made systematic would become the ultimate solution to develop products for emerging
markets.Ampere Vehicles had disrupted the two-wheeler market by their technology innovation
and the sustainable aspect here is that their growth is clean and inclusive. It is clean because of
the battery technology and inclusive because it has successfully served the farmers and disabled
people with its affordable transportation.
However, Corsi and Di Minin (2014) suggest that research in western world cannot be
directly transplanted to emerging economies. In the case of Ampere vehicles, they had managed
to disrupt the market and yet the mainstream customers are yet to adopt the new technology. A
small analysis on this line, based on secondary data had been made. As Pandit et al(2017),
argues, the disruptive innovation success needs to be linked to the disruptive innovation
capability of the firm. The multidimensional construct of dynamic capabilities of the
organisation includes sensing, learning, integrating, and reconfiguring inclusive
coordination.(Pavlou and El Sawy, 2011).The methodology adopted by Pandit D(2017) had been
used here to study Ampere vehicles based on observations and secondary data sources.
The CEO of the company has a keen sense of the market and is aware that the industry
relies to a great extent on the regulation policies of the Government, accounted under
environment turbulence. A look into the timeline of Ampere Vehicles would reveal their
competency on the dynamic capabilities of sensing, learning, integrating, and reconfiguring
inclusive coordination. New product introduction,indigenization Push, Investments, factory
expansion and the final merger depict the strong capabilities. Effective leadership of the founder
and the value driven organisational culture are additional merits. The company employs a young
dynamic workforce of which more than thirty percent are women.

Timeline of Ampere vehicles

2008 Origin of Ampere Vehicles, Launches 3 models of e-scooter

2009 Scooter For Differently abled : Government selects Ampere to supply vehicles for Differently abled
people
2010 E-Cycle Launched : Launches 3 models of e-cycle
2011 New Product : Launch of V60
2012 IndigenizationPush :Ampere Gets R & D Recognition from DSIR, Delhi; Ampere gets selected for a soft
loan from TDB, Delhi.
2013 Innovation Galore : Introduction of Indigenized Charger and IQ Battery
2014 Waste Management : Design and Supply of Battery Operated Waste Management Vehicles for Panchayat,
First of its kind implementation in India
2015 Tata Joins The Ride :Shri Ratan Tata invests in Ampere
2016 Factory Expansion :Ampere inaugurates second factory
2017 New Product :The launch of Reo and expands Distribution Footprint.
2018 New Product : The launch of Reo Lithium and Magnus 60V EScooter
Greaves Invests In Ampere : Greaves Cotton Ltd invests in Ampere and acquires a majority stake
Source : https://amperevehicles.com

The scalability challenges, as pointed out by the CEO are awareness and finance.The
company aims for global operations in the near future. The recent merger with Greaves Cotton is
expected to bring intellectual synergies between the two companies. Ampere vehicles had shed
the myths and emerged successful amidst turbulent ecosystem in an emerging economy, thus
exhibiting the true spirit of innovation.

Questions and tasks:

1. Please explain the essence of ‘jugaad’ innovation!

2. Please determine the target market of the Ampere vehicles and describe the customer value
these products are offering.
3. How do you evaluate the Greaves’ investment into Ampere?

References
 Christensen, Clayton M. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to
Fail. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
  Corsi, S., & Di Minin, A. (2014). Disruptive innovation… in reverse: Adding a geographical dimension to
disruptive innovation theory. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(1), 76-90.
 Pandit, D., Joshi, M. P., Sahay, A., & Gupta, R. K. (2018). Disruptive innovation and dynamic capabilities
in emerging economies: Evidence from the Indian automotive sector. Technological Forecasting and
Social Change, 129, 323-329.
 Pandit, D., Joshi, M.P., Gupta, R.K. and Sahay, A., 2017. Disruptive innovation through a dynamic
capabilities lens: an exploration of the auto component sector in India. International Journal of Indian
Culture and Business Management, 14(1), pp.109-130.
 Pavlou, P. A., & El Sawy, O. A. (2011). Understanding the elusive black box of dynamic
capabilities. Decision sciences, 42(1), 239-273.
Websites
 https://amperevehicles.com/about/
 https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/technology/auto/ratan-tata-exits-ampere-vehicles-earns-2-times-on-
investment-2923401.html accessed on 28/01/19
 https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/ratan-tata-bets-big-on-electric-vehicle-company-ampere-in-
coimbatore/article7396545.ece accessed on 28/01/19

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