Virtual Forest to develop ASIL-Certified Micro EV Motor Controllers for 3-wheeler light EVs

Home-grown company Virtual Forest, which specialises in motor control technology, along with Redler Technologies, had received a grant worth $4 million from Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) to develop ASIL-B (automatic safety integrity level) certified EV motor controllers for light and medium logistics applications. 

The grant is part of an intergovernmental partnership between India and Israel - the India-Israel Industrial R&D and Technological Innovation Fund, a cooperation platform between the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Government of India, and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA), Government of Israel.

Setup with the aim to promote, facilitate and support joint industrial R&D projects between companies from India and Israel, this would allow companies from each country to benefit from the technical expertise and market scenarios of each country to hasten the pace of innovation in both.

“We have been awarded the Grant to develop ASIL-B certified EV motor controllers for light and medium logistics applications. Virtual Forest and Redler will jointly develop the solution with both parties, either individually or jointly, managing various aspects of the project. The IP will be owned individually by the party that has developed it. The collaboration will leverage the technical know-how of each party to develop EV components for both the Indian and global market,” said Omer Basith, CEO and Co-Founder, of Virtual Forest.

Speaking on the partnership with Redler, Basith added that Redler Technologies specialises in electrical power and motion management solutions for the automotive and defence industries. And Virtual Forest has always looked to collaborate with partners to help expand capabilities, particularly by the way of manufacturing and sales partnerships. The collaboration combines the technical know-how of Redler with the industry expertise of Virtual Forest to provide leading products and solutions for motion control and power train EV Market.

The grant worth 4 million dollars has been released under the India-Israel R&D and Technological Innovation Fund ("I4F") to foster industrial R&D projects. According to the information shared with Business Today, the total project value is $4 million, and this will be equally invested by 4 entities. 

The Bengaluru-based start-up Virtual Forest aims to work towards Indian self-reliance in the EV domain by creating a local design and manufacturing base for critical subsystem components like EV motor controllers.