The global electric vehicle market is going like a train, and nowhere more so than in India, the world’s largest producer of 2 and 3 wheelers.

According to consultancy Bain, the penetration of electric 2/3 wheelers is forecast to climb to 40% by 2030 and to between 15%-20% for 4-wheel vehicles, from just 1% last year. That means there should be more than 12m new 2 and 3-wheelrs and 1m 4-wheeled EVs sold annually, up from just 1m in 2022. That's a cumulative $76bn–$100bn revenue opportunity, which is estimated to deliver operating profit of $8bn–$11bn.

One beneficiary of this unstoppable secular theme is Saietta Electric Drive (SED), which with its shares at 46p is currently valued at £48m. It's a leading eDrive/eMotor systems developer, and today it announced a third major platform win for its local JV with one of the largest OEMs in the Indian light-duty mobility market, Saietta VNA.

Initial volumes of its revolutionary new eDrive based on Radial Flux Technology (RFT) are anticipated to be 12,000 units during the fist 12 months and 60,000 over 5-years. The application is tailored for a lower powered L5 category small commercial vehicle - such as a van - taking Saietta Electric Drive into a new sector.

The RFT intellectual property will be exclusively owned by Saietta VNA, with #Saietta's partner Padmini VNA Mechatronics Limited contributing £857k towards the product development. Assembly of the RFT eDrives will take place at the JV's new manufacturing facility in Delhi, alongside the existing Axial Flux Technology (AFT) products.

First purchase orders for the RFTs are expected in due course, which will formally contract the client to commercial production.

So what does this mean for investors?

Well, clearly the agreement is another significant endorsement of Saietta’s first-class technology, supply chain capability and - importantly - customisable end-to-end technology. These are all crucial USPs as the buoyant EV sector migrates towards the safest, most cost effective and highest performance systems, possibly even enabling Saietta Electric Drive to ultimately become once of the very few ‘de facto’ standards within this buoyant industry.

Better still, today's landmark agreement comes on top of two previous EV platform wins to deliver 80,000 AFT units with the same OEM, with first deliveries on track to commence in Q4 2023. If successful, this relationship might even be later expanded to 2-wheelers such as scooters and motorbikes.

Executive chairman Tony Gott commented: "This new agreement from our major Indian OEM customer for a 3rd product line is further validation that our product and service offering is highly valued. Our core focus is on providing eDrive solutions for lightweight electric vehicles in India, and we are aggressively ramping up our industrial activities in market to ensure we have the right people, facilities, equipment, processes and supply chain in place to deliver high quality solutions to our clients. We are confident that we will achieve our mission to see lightweight electric vehicles powered by Saietta Electric Drive on the road in India in H1'24."