Sulajja Firodia Motwani is an Indian businesswoman. He is the deputy chairman of Dynamic Energy Engineering Limited. Her industry manufactures a complete range of two-wheeled mopeds, scooters and motorcycles. She also launched electric cars, off-road vehicles and small electric taxis aimed at green mobility and made-in-India electric vehicles. Suajja founded Kinetic Green Energy & Power Solutions Limited to manufacture these three-wheelers.
Wiki/Biography
Suraj Firodia Motwani was born as Suraj Firodia in Maharashtra on Wednesday, August 26, 1970 (51 years old in 2021). Her star sign is Virgo. She received her education from Garware School in Pune. In 1990, Suraj obtained her Bachelor of Commerce degree from Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce, Pune University. Later, at the age of 21, she went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to pursue her MBA.
appearance
Height (approximate): 5’5″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
family
She comes from a Marwari family.
parents and siblings
Sulajja Firodia is the granddaughter of (late) HK Firodia. He is the founder of kinetic engineering.
Sulajja’s grandfather HK Firodia
Her father’s name is Arun Firodia, who is the founder and chairman of Firodia Group and a Padmashree Award recipient. Her mother’s name is Jayashree Firodia and she is a doctor by profession.
Suraja Motwani’s parents
She has two sisters named Vismaya who work with Infiniti Liveaboard and The Infiniti respectively, Andaman and Kimaya who have carved out a niche for themselves as design professionals abroad and a brother named Ajinkya who is a industrialist.
Sulajja Motwani with her mother, brother and sister
husband and children
Sulajja Firodia’s husband is Manish Motwani. He works with Kinetic Group in India. They have a son named Sidhant.
Sulajja Motwani with her son and husband
Profession
After completing her MBA at the age of 21, she began working for four years at Barra International, an investment consulting firm in California. At work, she works in sales and finance. During this period, she also met and married her husband Manish Motwani. They are all U.S. green card holders. However, in 1996, due to the death of their grandfather, Sulajja and Manish both renounced their US citizenship, returned to India and joined Kinetic. Initially at Kinetic, she was responsible for managing the company’s strategy and policy, sales, marketing and finance functions, and investment portfolio. In a conversation with Outlook Business, she explained,
For the first few years, I was constantly traveling to meet with dealers all over the country. “
In the 1980s, Kinetic’s sales market share was 55%, but a decade later it had dropped to 22%, and then quickly to 5%. It faces stiff competition from Indian motorcycle manufacturers TVS Suzuki and Hero Honda. Sulajja said in an interview that Honda has a joint venture with Hero to produce motorcycles. She told,
We rely on Honda technology. But once they knew they were going to be self-reliant, they stopped giving us new technology. It impacted our rollout. “
In 1998, the Kinetic-Honda joint venture ceased operations. Under Sulajja’s leadership, Kinetic tried to launch motorcycles and scooters in partnership with other companies from 1998 to 2008. However, the collaboration failed. In 2004, Taiwan’s Sanyang Automobile Company acquired 11% of Kinetic’s Indian business and soon successfully launched a model called Flyte. She said in an interview about the new launch and partnerships,
The cooperation with Sanyang is going smoothly and we have successfully launched a model called Flyte. “
However, till then, the company’s share price was still trading at Rs. 5 billion in debt. In 2011, Sulajja Motwani interacted with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which introduced her to the concept of electric vehicles. In 2012, she went to California to conduct tricycle research and development. Soon, her efforts spawned Kinetic Green Energy and Power Solutions in India. In 2014, Kinetic Green began producing and selling golf carts. In a conversation with a media outlet, she commented on the incident,
Since the 3W was a few years away, we said let’s see the acceptance of our product, the technology and understand the market better.”
In 2016, Motwani had a turnover of Rs. 50000000. Soon, Motwani also launched an electric rickshaw priced at Rs. 100,000+ battery life. This launch saw Rs. The turnover in 2016 was 150 million. In 2017, Motwani and his team achieved a turnover of Rs 150 million. The Uttar Pradesh government’s $4 billion order for 27,000 e-rickshaws was approved by then Samajwadi Party (SP) chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Samajwadi Party leader places bulk order for Kinetic three-wheelers
By the end of FY17, the company’s turnover had reached Rs. 1 billion. Later, Kinetic Technology entered the field of lithium-ion batteries for tricycles. Motwani cooperates with Italian luxury car brand Lamborghini to launch electric golf carts and school cars, which are exclusively sold in the United States, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The 75:25 joint venture is a subsidiary of Kinetic Green. In an interview with the media, Motwani explained her collaboration with 75:25 JV. she says,
We have a 10-year brand licensing agreement and expect the golf cart market to grow from the current $3 billion to $5 billion by 2024. “
Sulajja Motwani works with Lamborghini for Kinetic
She is an advisory board member of AIESEC Youth Organization, Pune. She is the architect of business strategy, research and development for the Kinetic Group, including automotive manufacturing, powertrain systems, green energy, multi-story parking solutions, elevators and escalators. Hyundai, Lamborghini, Taijin Electric, and Magna are all partners of Kinetic. She is also responsible for executing Kinetic Group’s business strategies. She was also elected as the Chairman of Maharashtra FICCI. She is a member of FICCI National Steering Committee. She is co-chair of the FICCI Electric Vehicle Working Group. She is the head of electric three-wheelers at SMEV (Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles). She is a member of the advisory board of an initiative launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called iCreate – International Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. The Ministry of Heavy Industries appointed her as an industry nominee for the Indian Electric Vehicle Development Council. She is also a member of the National Executive Committee of CII, a member of the governing body of the prestigious CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India) and the National Chairman of FICCI Young Leaders Forum. She is a director of Invest in India, the Indian government’s apex investment promotion body. Sulajja is the brand ambassador for Plan International’s Save the Girls initiative.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- In 2002, the World Economic Forum selected her as a “Young Global Leader”.
- In 2002, Sulajja received the Young Achievers and Young Super Achievers in Business Award from Business Today.
- In 2003, he also received MTV’s coveted Fashion Icon Award, India’s Most Powerful Woman Award and Top Management Alliance Excellence Award.
- In 2019, she received Outlook’s Women of Worth (WOW) Award, Zee’s Dare to Dream Award, Rotary International’s Career Excellence Award, BMCC’s Pride Award and the Nari Shakti Award.
- Later, she was named the “Millennial Face” of the business world by India Today.
- In a Fortune magazine poll of industrialists, she was named one of the 25 business leaders of the next century.
- IESA ranks her as one of the women at the forefront of the global electric vehicle ecosystem and energy storage.
Facts/Trivia
- While in school, she topped the HSC and SSC exams.
- During her graduation, she was elected as the vice-president of AIESEC, a youth organization in Pune.
- In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, scuba diving, skiing, and rollerblading. She said in an interview with Firstpost,
I mountain bike, scuba dive, ski, rollerblade – downhill skiing or underwater swimming require different skills. I enjoyed it. “
- Sulajja Firodia loves running marathons. She is a fitness enthusiast. In her spare time, she likes to play badminton. She also enjoys a variety of adventure sports including skiing, skydiving, and scuba diving. In an interview with Firstpost, Motwani revealed her love for marathons,
I love working out because it’s the best stress buster. When you don’t care about your weight, it reflects on your attitude towards life. I challenge myself with fitness five days a week with yoga, going to the gym and running. You need to address your nutrition and fitness levels for your own good.”
- Sulajja Firodia Motwani is fluent in Marathi, Hindi, Rajasthani, French and English with a Sindhi accent.
- In 2016, in a conversation with online site Ficci Flo, Motwani provided advice and information for budding entrepreneurs,
Failure allows us to learn more and achieve success. Corporate governance is about the core values that infuse honesty, integrity, excellence and compassion into our products and the company’s product delivery. Wake up, dress up, show up, and never give up. “
- Motwani enjoys doing yoga or working out. In a conversation with Firstpost, she revealed,
The hour I spend at the gym or yoga is probably the best hour of my day. I’ve run half marathons and it’s an incredibly joyful feeling to do it over and over again. “
- Sulajja Firodia Motwani is a national level badminton player. During her school days, she was a basketball, volleyball and penalty kick player. She also participated in national-level basketball competitions during her college years.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education