At Chandigarh based dealership Sarbloh Motors, off-roading is only when it’s laced with the extreme. Sumesh Soman caught up with the pure technicians to understand offerings at the niche, one-stop-shop.
Coming across as pure technicians, at Chandigarh based Sarbloh Motors (Infinia Greentech Pvt. Ltd) founded in the year 2015, the motto is to make extreme off-roaders available to all. Going beyond the world of all-wheel drives, the one-stop-shop for extreme off-roading banks on extreme aggregates and build quality to withstand the scars of such a demanding drive. A testimony to this is the start of the Sarbloh journey with making off-road vehicles ground up in six months. Today it can do the same job in one-sixth of the period. It is this niche capability that has opened new avenues for Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Sarbloh Motors, Jaskeerat Singh Nagra. Motivated by his Sikh roots that is known the worldover for making wrought iron available to all, Nagra, is behind making extreme-off roaders to all. Not just built locally but internationally within the reach of enthusiasts, professionals up to private organisations in special applications, and specialised forces like Indian army alike.
In a day and age when the world is switching from pure mechanical engineering to electronics engineering, Nagra is living up to the tag of a pure technician. Despite his electronics roots, he refuses to give up on the purest form of engineering – Mechanical. This DNA reflects in his workshop cum dealership too. A one-stop solutions provider, Sarbloh Motors is leveraging its roots in Rain Forest Challenges (RFC), well known as a hot testbed for putting such specialised vehicles through their paces. Customisation and restoration, servicing and preps for the expedition are given at Sarbloh. The company is also engaged with international brands like Sherp International for catering to the market of disaster relief and rescue special application vehicles. Most recently, the company was credited for bringing the Sherp N 1200 IND Amphibious All-Terrain Vehicle (AATV) for demo and pilot runs on challenging terrains with the Indian army and Natural Disaster Relief Forces (NDRF). For the distribution of the latter, the company has formed a dedicated subsidiary in Gecko Motors Pvt. Ltd. as the official arm of Sherp India for Ukraine’s Quadro International.
The Iron Scorpio, a light-attack vehicle designed and built by Preferred Chassis Fabrication Inc., USA. and the Gecko S, a rear-engine sand-rail prototype are the other vehicles that the company is banking on for growth. A subsidiary company is registered with the Ministry of MSME as a micro-manufacturing enterprise – IronScorpian HMV Pvt. Ltd dedicated to the former vehicle. As a manufacturing enterprise, the company classifies for National Industry Classification Code (NIC) on the manufacture of bodies for motor vehicles including attachments for such vehicles besides parts and accessories not limited to brakes, gearboxes, axles, road wheels, suspension shock absorbers, radiators, silencers, exhaust pipes, catalysers, clutches, steering wheels, steering columns and steering boxes etc. The scope of the classification also extends to chassis fitted with engines for motor vehicles.
Sarbloh’s services extend beyond technical services to procurement and or sourcing the necessary parts and ancillaries including the winch, suspensions, trailers to name a few. This is backed by capabilities of modifications and extensions to ultimately fulfil the customer’s needs. Customers keen to source their parts and use the expertise of Sarbloh for assembly are also catered to making the dealership home to a variety of offerings, at relevant price points. Steering clear of falling in the rut by offering mass volumes of a tried and tested product, Nagra would rather have Sarbloh Motors diversify into unchartered territories and succeed at it. A testimony to this is Sarbloh’s arm Gecko Motors developing an autonomous platform for defence applications with the characteristic extreme off-road capability. In another instance, a high-speed platform for desert runs is also under construction at Gecko. It marks a significant shift from indulging in RFC builds in high numbers to accommodating one-off builds.
Banking on the affinity of millennials for adventure sport, Sarbloh Motors considers itself to be well placed and well equipped to meet such demands. Pointing at the mountainous terrains like the Union Territory of Ladakh becoming a preferred destination, Nagra hinted at the trend giving birth to more specialised offspring of the extreme off-roaders. Citing the lack of attention paid to forest management and climate change linked to natural disasters, Sarbloh Motors, according to Nagra, will also look at offering extreme off-roader variants for such applications. Inspired by the Russian philosophy of mobility, of keeping it simple, Nagra mentioned, “Without making too much noise, these vehicles can accomplish so much more than what I think many of the more advanced or more complicated machines do.” “Indian off-road landscape is at a nascent stage which translates to many opportunities for growth,” he concluded.
