Japan's EV Motors raises $27m in extended Series C

The latest and largest tranche – JPY 1.4bn – came from Incubate Fund, Iyogin Capital, Cygames Capital, and NTT Docomo Ventures, among several others. There have been at least four investments since August, with previous participants including IMM Investment, Energy & Environment Investment, FFG Venture Business Partners, and K4 Ventures.

The Series C also includes several strategic investors from the electrical, transport, and heavy machinery industries, among them Hankyu Bus, Kyuden Technosystems, Morita, Restar Electronics, and Shikoku Electric Power. Total funding since the company’s inception in 2019 is now JPY 4.7bn, with prior rounds featuring the likes of Hibishin Capital and Wistron Corporation.

EV Motors manufactures commercial EVs such as buses, trucks, and trikes, as well as charging stations. It claims that its battery technology has achieved the highest level of performance in terms of low power consumption and long life of any system globally.

There are five models of buses in the portfolio of existing and under-development products, including a minibus, a large city bus, a double-decker, and a touring coach. The truck fleet spans small delivery vehicles and highway tractor-trailers. There are two models of trikes, which have delivery boxes behind the seat, and a golf cart.

The company is developing a renewable energy business that will connect its battery technology with solar panel installations. There are also plans to explore “mobility-as-a-service” themes around EV-enabled communications, vehicle-based energy production, and other wireless services.

EV Motors makes a feature of its broader environmental aims and positions itself as an enabler of electrification generally. To this end, it began construction in January on a 55,000 square-metre “Zero Emission e-Park” for the testing of EVs. The renewable energy-powered site will also include an EV museum and a factory that will provide tours.

“We decided to invest in this project because we share [President and CTO Yuji Sato's] strong sense of mission to promote the potential of EV buses, which can serve as a mobile power source for disaster countermeasures while also supporting local transportation,” Daichi Amemiya, a director at NTT Docomo Ventures, said in a statement.

“We are convinced that commercial EVs with low power consumption and long life, which apply battery inverter control technology, will contribute to solving the issues of vehicle price, cruising range, and maintenance, which have been challenges up to now, and will become an indispensable part of the EV movement.”

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Cleantech
• Expansion
• Japan
• Incubate Fund
• IMM Investment
• automobiles
• Electric Vehicles
• energy storage
• renewable energy