Kirloskar Electric Company is one of India’s oldest electrical-equipment makers, founded in 1946 and still anchored in the same industrial logic: it designs and builds the heavy motors, generators, transformers and switchgear that keep power stations, steel plants, railways and water-supply schemes running. Over nearly eight decades it has moved from being a broad-line manufacturer to a solutions provider that customises its equipment for each customer’s project, whether that is a special motor for a nuclear plant or a transformer for a solar farm. That recurring approach - tailor-made engineering, sold project by project to India’s biggest infrastructure buyers - explains everything that follows. # Business segments Three engines that share the same factory floors and the same customer list - a rotating-machines core that is betting on electric vehicles, a transformer-and-switchgear business that rides government infrastructure spending, and a small overseas-and-services tail that extends the company’s reach. ## 1. Rotating machines: the company’s engineering heart, now powering electric vehicles **KECL makes the motors and generators that turn in every heavy industry in India, and it has quietly become one of the country’s leading suppliers of motors for electric vehicles - a position it has been building for more than a decade.** - **Motors for every heavy industry** - the company manufactures AC and DC motors for sugar, cement, steel, oil and gas, refineries and infrastructure, supplying them to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), engineering contractors (EPCs) and end-users who are expanding their plants. - **A proven EV manufacturing position** - KECL is one of the largest Indian manufacturers of motors for e-vehicles, with proven manufacturing capability in the segment; it already supplies motors for e-commerce vehicles and four-wheelers, and counts Tata Motors (for the Tata ACE) as a key customer. - **Custom, not catalogue** - the company’s real moat is its ability to design special motors for demanding applications: defence, metro rail, nuclear power and complex industrial projects, backed by an in-house R&D team that has not imported any technology in the last three years. - **A factory network being reshaped** - manufacturing is spread across six factory locations, though the company has been consolidating operations, discontinuing one unit’s machining activity and selling non-core land in Hubli and Tamil Nadu to focus its footprint. ## 2. Power generation and distribution: the infrastructure play on government capex **Transformers, DG sets and switchgear sold into India’s power-grid expansion and water-supply projects - a business where the order book is driven by state spending.** - **Transformers that passed the toughest test** - KECL makes transformers up to 420 kV and has successfully completed short-circuit tests at the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI) on units including a 40 MVA, 33/11.5 kV design, which unlocked supplies to NTPC, IOCL and SAIL. - **Jal Jeevan Mission is a major customer** - the company executed a large number of transformers for water-supply schemes under the Prime Minister’s Jal Jeevan Mission, supplied through EPC contractors including Larsen & Toubro, covering Bihar and Punjab. - **A prestige project on the resume** - KECL supplied dry-type transformers for the Central Vista Redevelopment Project, which includes India’s new Parliament building, demonstrating the brand’s acceptance in high-profile government work. - **Project-based, milestone-billed** - the business runs on a project model where billing happens at milestones, particularly for transformers sold to state EPCs, which means cash flows are lumpy and tied to delivery schedules. ## 3. Overseas and services: a thin but persistent export and after-sales layer **A small international presence and a network of spare-parts dealers that keep the installed base running - more a customer-retention tool than a standalone business.** - **Exports to the Gulf and beyond** - the company has overseas customers and maintains a branch office in Ajman, UAE, though its Malaysia branch was closed in September 2023; exports across all products were about ₹27 crore in FY25. - **Service centres that lock in loyalty** - a large network of spare-parts dealers and authorised service providers sits under both the rotating-machines and power-generation segments, ensuring that customers who buy a motor or transformer can get it repaired and maintained for decades. # Group structure and partners **A holding company that has spent years cleaning up a troubled overseas legacy and is now absorbing its asset-disposal subsidiaries back into the parent.** - **The German subsidiary that went to zero** - the company’s step-down subsidiary in Germany, Lloyd Dynamowerke, ran into severe losses after the European slowdown and filed for insolvency; KECL had infused over ₹224 crore before losing control, and in July 2024 it entered into a settlement agreement with the insolvency administrator. - **Small stakes abroad** - KECL holds a 30% stake in Kirloskar (Malaysia) SDN BHD (acquired in 1980) and an investment in Kirsons Trading Pte Ltd in Singapore, both legacy holdings with negligible operational significance today. - **A terminated EV joint venture** - a 2019 joint venture with Electrodrive Powertrain Solutions to design and supply electric-vehicle motors was ended by mutual agreement in August 2022, leaving KECL to pursue the EV motor opportunity on its own.