How to “grow” a high-tech import-substituting business? Oleg Sinyukhin, founder and CEO of Engy, spoke in an interview about his experience in creating the production of charging stations for electric vehicles and how the state can help small and medium-sized businesses.
– Oleg Sergeevich, how did it all begin?< /strong>
– I am an economist and mathematician by training. Graduated from MEPhI. He received his second education at MIRBIS, in strategic management.
It all started with the fact that I worked in a company that was engaged in metalworking. And just then they began to introduce payment terminals. We produced hundreds of cases for these devices. Well, actually, it didn’t take a genius to guess that this market would grow. And at some point I went free, created a legal entity and started from scratch. It was 2008. At that time, besides me, only three people worked in the company.
– Is there any secret to a successful team?
– Our team has been formed over the years. There was a lot of screening — some fit our coordinate system, others did not. Nowadays, mainly people work who are driven by the idea itself and their involvement in the creation of technologies of our future. In fact, there are very few such people.
– How correct was your calculation?
– The payment terminal market has been actively growing for several years. But these were the first steps. One day we were given a non-standard task — to help with the creation of an “electronic reception of the President of the Russian Federation” to optimize and digitalize the work with citizens’ appeals in the presidential administration. We had to make a terminal that would allow us to write an appeal electronically, or scan a previously prepared appeal, or create a voice message, or communicate directly online with a department representative. We have successfully solved this problem too. As a result, several hundred such automated devices were installed in all regions of the Russian Federation.
The next stage in the company’s development was the development of the first Russian automated order pick-up point (postamat). The process of designing and developing a prototype, including further preparation for mass production, took us about 9-10 months. Then, in 2013, the first and only operator with a network of parcel terminals appeared on this market. Accordingly, we produced parcel machines only for this company. Well, you know how the parcel terminal market has developed in the country and to what size it has grown today. Every major marketplace in Russia eventually built its own network of parcel terminals.
– What lessons have you learned from these success stories?< /strong>
– We realized for ourselves that we want to make non-standard solutions. Because when you do something new, at least at the first stage you have no competition. Secondly, you manage to occupy a niche in the market, and your competitors are catching up with you.
– How did you come to develop charging stations for electric vehicles?
– In 2022, we were faced with a choice: which direction to invest in, which product will be in demand by the market. And at the strategic session, we came to the conclusion that charging stations will become a new trend for the next ten years in the Russian Federation. And we were not mistaken. In the summer of 2022, the development of the first “fast” charging station with a capacity of 150 kilowatts operating on direct current began. Only then did we get involved in the production of “slow” charging stations operating on alternating current. These are stations that are appropriate to be placed in private households and in the parking lots of residential buildings, shopping centers and hotels.
– How many months did it take to bring a new product to the market?
— Fifteen months. There was intense work to create the product: writing software, designing the stations themselves, conducting tests, fixing the operation of controllers, releasing new versions of controller firmware, fixing, refining and releasing new versions of software, and so on in a circle several times… That's enough a labor-intensive, complex and nerve-wracking process. The most difficult thing about a new product is not to invent it and develop it, but to make it reliable and stable. And this requires a huge number of experiments and tests. How to test charging stations? Now we understand how to make an electric car emulator and are working in this direction, but a year ago we had to start with experiments on “live” cars. At first we had 30% of successful launches, then 50%, then 70%… Having reached 80%, we began to make our charging stations public (this figure is no worse than most manufacturers on the market). Publicity has allowed us to greatly expand our coverage of electric vehicles and now we have surpassed the bar of 90% of successful sessions, which not all Russian manufacturers of charging stations can boast of.
We paid special attention to security issues. For example, our engineers developed from scratch an “insulation monitoring relay” device, a kind of analogue of a residual current device for DC circuits. It monitors the insulation resistance of the power cable used to charge the electric vehicle and turns off the voltage if current leaks are detected before they become dangerous to humans.
– How complex are your charging stations?
– A fast charging station is a complex high-voltage device (internal voltage up to 1000 volts), requiring a high-power technical connection with registration and approval of the corresponding project. According to international standards and GOSTs, it necessarily includes many different protective devices that ensure safety.
Inside the fast charging station there are an input power group and protective devices, current converters, a switching unit, a separate controller for each connector, measuring devices, relays insulation monitoring, surge protection devices.
In addition, inside the “fast” station there is always a slow charging unit. A climate control system is required. You can’t do without a control unit — a computer, a modem, a touch screen.
< br />– I guess they wrapped the papers for you too…
— Certainly! There were also on-site inspections. Experts came and assessed the product, its degree of readiness, and the company itself. There is a mandatory requirement that the software be in the register of the Ministry of Digital Development (in the register of domestic software). And this is a separate process… Because we must first develop the “computer hardware”, and then, according to all the rules, submit it to the register of domestic software, receive either a positive or another conclusion and go to the second round, for revision. That is, a colossal amount of work has been done.
When conducting inspections, the Ministry of Industry and Trade closely checks that the company does not just have production, but that it is serial and is capable of producing large volumes of the declared products. And in order to debug, at least to a first approximation, mass production (design and technological documentation, testing methods), it is necessary to produce several hundred devices. This means that you need to invest a lot of money in such production (components, salaries, experimental design work, storage of finished products, in the end). So it turns out that a small Russian manufacturer with an honest Russian product hits this entry barrier (and it is far from the only one) and stops. But we didn't stop… After all, the one who walks will master the road. As a result, six models of fast charging stations were accredited for compliance with Russian Government Decree No. 719 and were included in the Unified Register of Russian Radio-Electronic Products.
– Was there a temptation to give up everything?
– I have a golden rule: the main thing is not to quit. Then you can run. The result is the sum of attempts.
< br />– What is the production capacity? Where is it located and what does it produce?
– The main production is located in the city of Kovrov. These are two metalworking workshops with a total area of 7 thousand square meters. They are equipped with modern CNC machines. There is also a separate assembly shop where we assemble fairly (from our point of view) simple products — such as self-service cash registers and parcel machines.
We assemble more complex products, robotic solutions for banking or charging stations in Moscow, where we have an assembly shop of 1.5 thousand square meters. The RND center carries out developments in our office on Nakhimovsky Prospekt. Everything that relates to design, engineering and software development, to the development and testing of controllers, single-board computers and other electronic devices is carried out directly here.
In addition, we have nine service centers in cities with a population of over a million. We store components there. This helps in case of equipment breakdown to make repairs as quickly as possible. It is important not only to sell products, but also to ensure their fault tolerance. Service engineers service more than 13 thousand different self-service devices in 84 constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
– What support measures does the state provide? And what should they ideally be?
– Now the state is trying to find a language of communication with business. This does not always work out; the state does not always listen to business. Especially small and medium. We are now considered average. But positive dynamics are visible. Of the working mechanisms that are directly suitable for our organization, there are two forms — grants and subsidies. I would, of course, like the possibilities for using these mechanisms to be simplified, because now they are quite bureaucratic.
Now about production. If we achieve technological sovereignty, then the state should help the manufacturer in every possible way. Small and medium-sized businesses, in fact, do not always “fatten” and cannot always withstand the tax burden that an already established business bears. It would be right for manufacturers to provide a number of tax benefits.
In our perimeter there is a company that deals with software and is in the register of IT companies of the Ministry of Digital Development. And it has significant tax breaks on payroll taxes. The idea is this: if a company can prove that it is a manufacturing company, has a fleet of machines and other production equipment, and actually manufactures its own products, creates jobs and pays taxes, it makes sense to include such a company in a certain register of manufacturing companies and Exactly according to the same principle as with IT companies, make tax breaks for it.
– What advice would you give to those who are just starting a business?
– There is such a wise saying: “Be careful! Your dream may come true!” First of all, you need to be aware of the fact that not everyone is able to open their own business simply because a certain set of factors and character traits of a person play a role. And in order not to get burned, not to find yourself halfway through nothing, you need to first of all ask yourself: “Am I ready to develop, create and run my own business for many years?” This is the main question that needs to be answered. Because if there is a strong desire, and it is supported by ambition, sparkling eyes, and the presence of intelligence, then everything else will definitely happen. And it doesn’t matter what you do: production, IT, service, services. Everyone should be in their place.