‘Lubricants market to grow well … EVs both an opportunity and challenge’: CEO of Gulf Oil India

How are EV fluids different from regular fluids?

EV fluids are quite similar to the lubricants we do, but we have to tweak the additives we use– the chemicals and the construction– to look at thermal and electrical properties. For example, transmission fluid in EVs will have additional formulation that will improve the thermal properties because of heat transfer from batteries. The brake fluids and greases are similar to one another. Then, there are hybrid vehicles, which also use the normal engines so they have both. There are different types of EV fluids for hybrid and fully-electric cars. It’s an extension of our current products– most of the technology is available. It’s all about testing the fluids and then launching them. Still, it’s a very small volume– today it’ll be around 1,800 kilolitres. Within four years, we are expecting it to be between 12,000 to 15,000 kilolitres.

Can you give me an overview of Gulf’s EV play?

Given our brand distribution and our customers, like OEMs and those in the infrastructure sector, we believe we should be in the EV value chain. Today, India is about 30-40 per cent of Gulf Oil worldwide, so it is a focus market for us. In the last three years, we have made three investments. One, which we made at a global level, is UK-based Indra Renewable Technologies that deals with EV chargers and has an 8 per cent market share in the UK. We want to bring this charger to India and localise it. In addition to that, we have invested 26 per cent in Noida-based ElectreeFi, which makes charging software. They’ve already tied up with various vehicle OEMs and some utilities. The third investment we made was in October– a 51 per cent stake in Ahmedabad–based Tirex Chargers, a charger manufacturing company. They have about 8-10 per cent market share in fast chargers and they do slow chargers too. Today, Tirex is looking at how it can continue keeping its market share in the DC charging market, which is going to become a billion dollar opportunity in the next five to six years.

Will Gulf’s EV strategy continue to focus on acquisitions? Also, what could your next acquisition look like?

We have invested about Rs 150 crore from India in these three companies. Indra is a global majority share, but we have been a part of that with 7.5 per cent. ElectreeFi, which is a software company, was around Rs 16 crore and Tirex was a major move, which was over Rs 100 crore. We want to go capital-light and leverage the Gulf brand and distribution. We also want to be strategic partners. There is a core competency in these companies, like Tyrex already has many installations and customers. What we can help in the journey as a strategic partner is to not only support them in terms of investments to expand, but also to create a technology roadmap, service network, and synergize with our customer base.

We are currently looking at the two-wheeler space in India, something like battery swapping can be looked at. But, at the moment, we obviously feel that the policy has to come out.

Recently, some study pointed out that oil intensity, that is the volume of oil consumed per unit of GDP, has come down in recent years and is on track to fall further. Any comments?

Lubricant is one part of oil. When we say oil consumption is coming down, it obviously means petrol, diesel, and other things. So definitely, oil consumption can come down as a large pie and people are conscious of that. In our case, we try to do better lubricants and improve quality as lubricants also help in fuel economy. With the right quality lubricant, you can save up to 2-3 per cent of fuel consumption. We also make a product called AdBlue, which is not an oil- but a urea-based product. AdBlue is compulsory for all BS6 vehicles. AdBlue reduces NOx emissions and helps to deal with tailpipe pollution.