How they make the world's fastest EV chargers | Exponent Energy CEO gives factory tour!

[00:01:26] Introduction: What does Exponent Energy do?

[00:03:27] Built a car at 16: Fact or Myth? 

[00:05:50] Exponent Energy: Are they a battery company or charging company or both?

[00:08:02] Energy Ecosystem: The challenge in EV adoption 

[00:11:23] Charging Infrastructure challenges: How is 15 minute charging a solution?

[00:13:46] Rapid EV Charging:  Engineering challenges compared to petroleum vehicles

[00:16:18] Turn the Knob Up: Why you can’t just pass more current to the battery

[00:19:58] Solving Fast Charging: How does Exponent do it?

[00:27:03] Economics of Engineering EVs: Making EVs more accessible

[00:32:35] Exponent Energy Investors: The journey so far

[00:34:56] From Mobile Phones to Trucks: The difference in the batteries 

[00:37:41] From IIT Madras to Ather: How building a car led to Ather

[00:43:30] Ather to Exponent Energy: What started that journey?

[00:49:22] Exporting Technology to International Market: Is it an easy objective to achieve?

[00:50:50] Driver in Raftaar Days: Hiring students from the Raftaar team

[00:52:51] Being a Bangalore Boy: His love for cricket and how the city has changed

[00:55:39] Building in CFI: Stories from his time in CFI

[00:56:56] Startup Life: How is it similar to the game of cricket

[00:58:20] Exponent Factory Tour!

[00:01:03] IIT Madras

[00:38:37] Arun calls CFI the best thing that happened to him when he was in IITM.  

[00:39:50] The IITM Research Park and Incubation Cell provide a nice graduation path for builders

[00:40:22] Arun met his Ather Energy co-founder Swapnil Jain and Anand Hariharan in CFI. 

[00:55:21] Tarun Mehta and Kedar Kulkarni are some of the successful entrepreneurs to have graduated from CFI

[00:08:55] Amrut talks about owning an Ather Energy bike. 

[00:15:21] Arun compares the EV ecosystem to the VISA electronic payment infrastructure 

[00:24:56] The Tesla H-Vac system which maintains battery temperature is very expensive

[00:28:36] Amrut mentions the TATA Ace EV as an example where cheaper batteries make sense

[00:32:44] YourNest Venture Capital, 3one4 Capital, and AdvantEdge were some of the early investors of Exponent Energy.  

[00:32:58] Lightspeed Venture Partners invested in Exponent when the technology was still on paper and have stayed with them since

[00:33:08] Eight Roads and TDK Ventures led the Series B investing in Exponent Energy 

[00:39:30] Ather, Exponent, and HyperVerge are some of the successful companies to come out of CFI  

[00:04:30] Amrut and Arun talk about watching the show Junkyard Wars on Discovery Channel when they were younger.

[00:51:18] The Raftaar vehicles can run faster than the Formula 1 cars

[00:52:50] Arun is a fan of cricket and of the RCB IPL team

[01:05:57] One of the machines in the Exponent is named Stickinator as a reference to Phineas and Ferb

[00:16:51] Anodic Crowding is a phenomenon where an excessive concentration of electric current occurs at specific points on an anode, particularly in flip chip solder joints, which can lead to localized overheating, instability and undesirable microstructural changes like whisker growth 

[00:40:35] Most of Arun’s co-founders and colleagues at Ather and Exponent were members of the Raftaar team.