Argentum Motors: Little-known Indian-French Company Could Upstage Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt
August 19, 2008
By Nick Kurczewski
SURAJPUR, INDIA - Like the sort of whisper quiet electric car it aspires to build, Argentum Motors has been operating in near total silence as it plots its course in the Indian automotive market, and finalizes plans to manufacture electric vehicles.
During an exclusive interview with AutoObserver, B V R Subbu, founder and board member of Argentum Motors, and former president of Hyundai Motors India, said that the company's electric car could be on sale in Europe and North America as early as next year and could debut at the upcoming Paris auto show.
If this happens, Argentum's electric car would beat range-extender Chevrolet Volt and next-generation Toyota Prius to the U.S. market by one year. The Indian company would also have a three-year head start on the electric vehicle program being developed by Renault-Nissan, which promises global sales of an electric car by 2012.
Big Ambitions, Big Factory
Argentum Motors is still relatively unknown, but the company certainly wasn't subtle when it came time to choose its base of operations. In 2007, Argentum Motors acquired the third largest automobile factory in India, a sprawling ex-Daewoo plant that had been dormant since the Korean firm went belly-up in 2001.
B V R Subbu says that the plant has the capacity to build a combined total of 400,000 engines and transmissions per year. Within two years, he says the factory should have the capacity to churn out 200,000 complete vehicles - its present annual capacity is 100,000. With this enormous factory at its disposal, Argentum Motors has focused on working with major auto manufacturers, for third-party construction of parts and complete vehicles.
Several manufacturers have been linked with Argentum Motors, including Peugeot and Malaysian car-builder Proton, a company in which General Motors has renewed its interest. "I don't know why these rumors start," said Subbu. "A lot of people have come to speak with us." He admitted that Argentum is in negotiations with two manufacturers, but refused to name which ones.
Low labor costs and the availability of skilled engineers - not to mention a populace hungry for new vehicles, despite India's recent economic cool down - have sparked a wave of new car factories in India. GM will soon begin production of its Spark city-car at a new factory in Pune. Business Standard India reports that Toyota has begun construction of a factory near Bangalore, devoted to building a small car tailored to the Indian market. Volkswagen, Fiat and Renault-Nissan are also rapidly expanding their manufacturing capability in India.
Purchase of Heuliez
In July, Argentum Motors became a truly global company when it purchased Heuliez, a French firm specializing in design, prototyping and production. According to Heuliez's Web site, the company has a total of 1,360 employees, and design and manufacturing sites in France, Spain and Slovakia. Heuliez's core business is retractable hardtops, built for cars like the Opel Tigra TwinTop and Peugeot 206 CC.
"Heuliez expanded in the belief that the retractable hardtop market would expand," said Subbu. But when the retractable market stagnated, Heuliez was forced to declare bankruptcy in December 2007. Argentum Motors reportedly paid 10 million euros for a 60 percent stake in Heuliez, with another 10 million euros promised over the next five years, thereby increasing Argentum's stake to 67 percent.
Made in France
What would an Indian contract manufacturer like Argentum Motors want with a French coachbuilder? "Almost immediately, I saw that Heuliez had to be an electric car company," explained Subbu. "We hope to create a low cost electric car: designed in France, procured globally, and manufactured in France."
Instead of uprooting Heuliez's technical know-how and shipping it to India, Subbu believes cost cutting can be done in Europe, via improved parts sourcing and "using the same number of people to build far more vehicles." In his opinion, "there is a certain romance to a French brand" that bodes well with a high-tech project like an electric car.
The car could appear as soon as the Paris motor show, which is open to the public from October 4-19. "We've been working [on the electric car] very quietly for the past six months," said Subbu. While he couldn't give away all the design specs, he did offer some tantalizing details.
Facts and Figures
Subbu says that Argentum Motors and Heuliez have "the chassis in hand," and that it is not a derivative of an existing car platform. A small car is planned first, followed by a pick-up/utility version. The small car will be 137 inches long, making it 7 inches shorter than the pint-sized Mini Cooper. The price will be around 15,000 euros - $22,500 at current exchange rates.
Subbu says the battery pack will "ultimately be lithium-ion." He could not confirm that the car will debut with the technology, which is found in everything from laptops to cell phones, but is still being perfected for use in cars. Cheaper nickel-metal hydride batteries could be a stop-gap measure, until longer-lasting and quicker-to-charge lithium-ion batteries are ready.
Prototypes already exist. "We should be completing our final iterations in the next three to four months," said Subbu. "I would say that, one year from now, we should be in a position to sell the car in Europe." Subbu also confirmed that sales are planned for the U.S.
If Argentum Motors sticks to its aggressive schedule and brings a viable electric vehicle to market by 2009, then this little-known Indian company's days of operating in silence will officially be over.
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