Matter

In the global fight against climate change, the most decisive victories may emerge from the developing world.

According to the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report, to keep global warming to non-catastrophic levels, global CO2 emissions must reach “net zero” by 2050. Since the report was issued in 2021, over one hundred and forty countries have set net-zero targets; yet despite these commitments, global emissions continue to rise.

In order to stave off a worst-case climate scenario, we need  to develop and deploy the technologies and infrastructure to support a net zero world. From electrifying almost all global transportation to tripling clean energy investment, these investments must be significant and far-reaching,.

Nowhere are the stakes higher– or will contributions be more impactful– than in the developing world. Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs) were responsible for over 95% of the increase in GHG emissions in the last decade– a number will surely rise in the upcoming one, as EMDEs are expected to account for 98% of global population growth, as well as over 90% of new middle-class households.

As these nations urbanize and their economies develop, how they are able to meet their growing demands– the decisions they make in energy generation and manufacturing practices, in transportation and construction– will have global effects. Interventions that support the best of innovation, allowing these sectors to advance profitably and sustainably, will be critical. Fortunately, investments in these areas are particularly cost-effective–  it is much more efficient to integrate clean technologies at earlier stages of development than to adapt or retrofit legacy infrastructure–  but adoption will require affordable and available sustainable alternatives.

India’s trajectory is perhaps the most crucial. It is the world’s fifth largest economy, the fastest-growing large economy, and recently became the world’s most populous country; it is urbanizing rapidly and has long-term, aggressively ambitious plans for economic growth (it intends to grow more than 6x in the next 25 years). There is no net zero pathway without a renewably-powered, sustainably developed India.

Electrifying global transportation is practically a necessity, and India’s transport sector, in particular, is ripe for almost immediate sustainable development. It currently accounts for 14% of the country’s GHG emissions– and with the expected increased demand for personal vehicles, that percentage is on the rise– as well as 44% of the country’s oil consumption. It contributes to deleterious pollution levels and some of the worst congestion in the world.

In a landscape primed for innovation, within a promising economic and regulatory environment,  Matter – India’s first electric two-wheel vehicle – holds the potential to drive a significant shift toward sustainable transportation.

It’s an exciting time for India. It is the world’s fastest growing large economy and the fifth largest overall, with some experts projecting its economy will overtake Germany and Japan for third as early as 2027. Since 2014, when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minister, India’s GDP has grown 83% (15% more than China’s) and its per capita GDP 55%. Investors and foreign nations are bullish: India’s stock market is routinely hitting record highs, and last year, India received $71B in foreign direct investment. (It is eyeing $100B/year going forward.)

To help spur long-term economic growth, Modi, who was reelected to his third term in June, has prioritized manufacturing, as well as electrification and the development of digital public infrastructure. On the manufacturing end, in 2023, the government announced $26B Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes in 14 manufacturing sectors, ranging from electronics and textiles to automobile production and battery cells.

Digitization is one of Modi’s greatest victories. His administration has electrified 18,000 villages, and since the 2016 launch of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India has become the largest global market for digital payments, more than four times the size of China’s. A G20 document from the World Bank estimates that India’s digital infrastructure helped the nation hit financial inclusion markers 40 years faster than it would have otherwise. Modi himself tweeted about it.

Socially, the country is urbanizing at breakneck speed. In April, it became the most populous country in the world, while also being one of the youngest; the average age of its 1.4 billion people is just 29, and 65% of the population is under 35.

By 2050, according to University of Pennsylvania Professor Tariq Tachil, director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), India will add more than 400 million people to its cities. Social transformation is expected to go hand-in-hand: the rate of extreme poverty has fallen from 12.2% in 2012 to 2.0% in 2022, and by the mid-century, the middle class– already the fastest growing segment of the population– is forecasted to consist of more than 1 billion people.

This shift has been facilitated by the BJP’s investment in public infrastructure. Since Modi took office, India’s highway network has increased by 60%, with plans to increase by another 200,000km by 2037. In February, the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced $134B for infrastructure, an increase of more than 11% year on year. This includes more than $30B each for railways and the road transport ministry, as well as more than $45B for states to spend on infrastructure. His most ambitious project was the 2021 Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti National Master Plan, a $1.1T project to digitally unite, centralize, and implement infrastructural projects throughout the country.

This infrastructural expansion, however, also highlights India’s problems associated with transportation– its pollution is the second worst in the world, and its roads are congested and dangerous.

To combat these issues, in 2015, Modi launched the Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, which provides purchase incentives and charging vehicle support, to both hasten and ease the electric transition. (FAME II was approved in 2019, and then extended again in 2024.) The PLI schemes, as well, have an emphasis on forward-looking automobile manufacturing, as well as battery cell production.

The result is that EV sales are projected to reach 35% of total vehicle sales by 2030. But India is a country of two-wheelers, which account for more than 70% of all vehicles. The forecast is even more optimistic there: The Economist puts electric adoption of electric two-wheelers at 60-70% by 2030.

This transition is necessary not just for global emissions targets, but for the health of the country. India is the second most polluted country in the world, behind only Bangladesh. From 2013 to 2021, it was responsible for more than 59% of the world’s increase in pollution.

The Clean Air Fund estimates that pollution is responsible for 1 in 8 deaths globally while The Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) calls particulate pollution “the greatest threat to human health in India.” It estimates that particulate pollution shortens the average Indian’s life expectancy by 5.3 years, a number that balloons to 11.9 years for someone living in Delhi, currently the most polluted city in the world. India’s transportation sector is a major contributor, with internal combustion engine two-wheelers producing 30% of all particulate matter in the country.

Matter Motorworks was founded in 2019 by Mohal Lalbhai (CEO), Arun Singh (COO), Saran Babu (CDO), and Prasad Telikepalli (CTO) to meet the needs of a rapidly changing, rapidly developing India.

With extensive leadership and engineering experience in the machinery, design, and electric vehicle spaces, the team at Matter is ideally suited to meet such a need. Lalbhai is an entrepreneur who previously served as Director of Ethereal Machines, which specializes in advanced machinery manufacturing. Singh was business head of a start-up specializing in manufacturing deep-discharge batteries and electric/hybrid vehicle applications before becoming the COO of Steelstrong Valves Private Limited. Babu was the Chief Design Officer at Ethereal Machines with Lalbhai, leading the team to receiving the 2018 CES Best of Innovation Award. And Telikepalli was head of the Electronics Center of Excellence and EV Applications with Mahindra Rise, after leading eMobility at Eaton Innovation, an intelligent power management company. Between them, they share  over 100 years of automotive manufacturing experience and have built over 10 greenfield manufacturing facilities.

With Matter, the team has leveraged their collective expertise to develop a new, vertically integrated electric motorbike from the ground up. The founders prioritized domestic design and production, establishing the first independent electric vehicle ecosystem in India. Since 2019, Matter has filed 124 patents, 50 designs, and 182 trademarks. They have created their own manufacturing facility and have invested in cell manufacturing and cell-chemistry research.

Matter debuted its inaugural product, the Matter AERA (or M1), in 2023.

The online launch generated over 40,000 pre-orders, with deliveries scheduled to begin in October. The AERA is designed specifically for an Indian population that is young, technologically-savvy, and environmentally-aware. The bike is safe, fast (0-60kmph in less than 6 seconds), can accommodate two riders comfortably, and has a range of 125 km per charge. It is also relatively affordable, with its base model starting at around $2000.

Matter was meticulous in its design. Itsa 7-inch touchscreen display supports Bluetooth and 4G connectivity, as well as smartphone and, naturally, payment software integration. Safety is a paramount concern throughout the M1’s design, functionality, and durability specifications. To address the challenge of extreme temperatures and prevent battery ignition – a critical issue in India, where temperatures can soar above 125°F (51.7°C) in the hottest months – Matter developed an innovative in-house liquid coolant system. This advanced cooling solution circulates through the powertrain, motor, battery, and display screen, effectively managing heat and enhancing overall vehicle reliability and performance.

India is just the first market that Matter intends to penetrate. Matter has partnered with Total Energies to bring a lower-cost, mass-market vehicle to developing economies in 2027. The product will be the M2, which will have the added benefit of leveraging swappable batteries.

It’s a massive, untapped  market. Two-wheelers make up a huge portion of vehicles in many developing nations. (In Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, for example, more than 80% of households have a motorbike). Matter plans to expand locally in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation region (neighboring countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal). From there it will deploy in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, which has a growing demand for electric vehicles and a hot and humid climate that make Matter products, with their unique liquid coolant system, particularly desirable. Then it will expand into Africa, and finally into the mature markets of Europe and the Americas.

Initially, Matter will ship completely built units, then, as it builds out its distribution and service networks, it will slowly transition to semi- and completely-knocked down kits, in order to optimize costs and unit prices.

At scale, Matter is poised to revolutionize global transportation by deploying up to 3.5 million electric motorcycles worldwide, catalyzing a significant shift towards sustainable mobility and accelerating the global renewable energy transition.