From Lakes Region to Global Stage: ePropelled Expands to Lead Drone Motor Production

Nick Grewal, president and CEO, of ePropelled.
(Photo by John Koziol)

Laconia’s ePropelled, a leader in uncrewed vehicle solutions for air, land and sea is poised to become a world leader in the manufacture of drone motors and controls.

On Sept.9, ePropelled held an open house at its facility at 144 Lexington Ave. at which time company officials announced an ambitious plan to triple the size of its physical presence in the City on the Lakes in the next three years; to hire as many as 350 employees; and to boost the number of motors and controls produced annually from 300,000 to 3 million.

Privately owned by Nick Grewal and his family, who have long and extensive connections to the Lakes Region and New Hampshire, ePropelled also announced that it has become the first company anywhere to have its supply chain certified by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Several years in the making and beginning in a hangar at the Laconia Municipal Airport in Gilford, the expansion, according to Grewal, is made possible by Pres. Donald Trump’s executive order of June 6 in which he called for “UNLEASHING AMERICAN DRONE DOMINANCE” with the goal of securing leadership in the production of drones as a national-security priority and in that process, to supplant China as the maker of drones while also breaking America’s reliance on China for the rare-earth metals required for making them.

George Smith, an employee of
ePropelled, works on a wire winding machine to make a component for drone motors.
(Photo by John Koziol)

“Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), otherwise known as drones, enhance United States productivity, create high-skilled jobs, and are reshaping the future of aviation,” Trump wrote in his executive order.

“Drones are already transforming industries from logistics and infrastructure inspection to precision agriculture, emergency response, and public safety,” the order said. “Emerging technologies such as electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft promise to modernize methods for cargo delivery, passenger transport, and other advanced air mobility capabilities.”

Trump added that “the United States must accelerate the safe commercialization of drone technologies and fully integrate UAS into the National Aerospace System. The time has come to accelerate testing and to enable routine drone operations, scale up domestic production, and expand the export of trusted, American-manufactured drone technologies to global markets.”

ePropelled officials said the company will be headquartered in Laconia and that it has subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and India.

The company is doing a lot of things since its move from Gilford to Laconia a year ago, said Grewal, including obtaining ISO 9001:2015 Certification for Quality Management System.

But “The most important thing is we’re creating jobs,” he said.

Grewal, who has invested $28 million into the Laconia venture, said he expects $31 million in sales by next year.

He said the DoD recently pledged to support ePropelled however it could and wants between 3 million and five million motors annually to attain “drone dominance in the world.”

A company representative said ePropelled has begun working with two U.S. firms to supply it with rare-earth magnets, which are the most difficult materials to obtain.

The ePropelled open house was well attended with dignitaries including interim Laconia Mayor Charlie St. Clair; Executive Councilor Joe Kenney; Beno Lamontagne of the state’s Bureau of Economic Affairs; and with surrogates for Gov. Kelley Ayotte. U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Congressmen Chris Pappas and Maggie Goodlander sharing wishes for success.

David Clay, who is her majesty’s consul general to New England, said ePropelled expansion marks the fact that the “UK and U.S. are the closest of allies.”

Dean Marcarelli, who is ePropelled’s head of marketing, said the market wants his company’s products for defense, surveillance, inspections, and agriculture and delivery applications.

“Amazon has their own drone company,” he noted, but could eventually become an ePropelled customer because “It’s very hard to make a drone motor.”

Grewal said ePropelled does a “high margin volume so paying people (well)” is not problem.

Eliza Leadbeater, who was executive director of the Belknap Country Economic Development Commission from 1992-2007, and who also attended the ePropelled open house, said the perennial challenge has not been in finding employees, but in housing them.

“That is something we need to address,” said Leadbeater.

Grewal, who is 73 years old, said ePropelled may be his last entrepreneurial venture.

He said ePropelled is funded by himself, family and friends, “with no VCs” — venture capitalists – involved.

He conceded that Trump’s mercurial personality makes it “very painful sometimes” to plan for the future but was nonetheless optimistic about ePropelled.

The owner of a seasonal home in Gilford for some four decades, Grewal said he chose to expand in Laconia because the city was ripe for investment and because, as a state, New Hampshire has fewer restrictions and barriers to businesses.

“You can really do stuff,” he said.