Electric dreams: The story of Indian market for electric two-wheelers

It was a podium finish at an electric two-wheeler race in the Isle of Man some half a decade ago that stoked Kapil Shelke's interest in turning his passion for racing into actually building the bikes he rode. Participating in the international circuit for four years also offered the 29-year old engineer a first-hand view of what an ideal electric racing bike must be like, and what attributes would appeal to hard-core enthusiasts.

So much so, that when his Pune-based startup Tork unveiled its newest product-T6X—an electric-powered racing bike this September, pre-orders poured in, with 1000 bookings in just one day. "This is a good start," says Shelke, a graduate from Pune University who founded the company in 2010.

In Bengaluru, Ather Energy, backed by Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny BSE -1.30 % Bansal, has assembled a multi-disciplinary team to build its first product – a smart electric scooter. 

By hiring diverse talent from mechanical engineers to vehicle stylists, user interface and experience specialists, electrical, power, hardware and software engineers, Ather -which has also raised funding from New York-based investment firm Tiger Global -is looking to create an end-to-end framework for the manufacture of electric two-wheelers in the country. These are not pipe dreams. Ather, Tork and peers like the Coimbatore-based Ampere Vehicles and Spero are riding a new wave of opportunity that has opened up for the electric vehicle industry led by reduction in prices for key components, like the battery, to growing support from the government. 

These startups are by no means the first movers in the space but they are benefiting from a conducive environment taking shape. The price of lithium-ion batteries-which power electric vehicles-has dropped nearly four-fold since about a decade back, moving down to about $200 per battery today from $800 in 2008 according to industry estimates. 

"This is a dramatic change," says Tarun Mehta, chief executive of Ather Energy, as it is one component that can bring about a steep reduction in the cost of the vehicle. Typically, the battery constitutes up to 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the total price. 

On its part, the government has made clear its intention to transform the country into a nation that runs on only electric vehicles by 2030. "The intention is there, the policies will soon come in for these to happen," says Chetan Maini, founder of Reva-India's' first electric car -which was acquired by auto major Mahindra & Mahindra in 2010.

Also, the need for eco-friendly transport is rising across Indian cities.

Take, for example, the experiment in the National Capital Region, where petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles were regulated on the basis of their number plates, in a bid to reduce vehicular pollution. "You will soon see a transformation," says Maini. At present, electric vehicles sales account for less than 1 per cent of all total vehicle sales in India according to industry lobby group Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).

Entrepreneurs are also betting on the price parity for electric vehicles vis- a- vis petrol vehicles becoming a reality in the next three years. "That is when the market will flip," says Mehta of Ather. The 27-year old IIT-Madras graduate teamed up with Swapnil Jain to set up the company in October 2013 at the incubation centre in their alma mater. 

"(The) entire rationale to buy a petrol vehicle will disappear," says Mehta when "consumers can buy an electric vehicle which will cost pretty much the same as a petrol vehicle, will cost six to eight times less to run, is noise-free, requires far less maintenance, offers more storage space and is lighter." 

The task at hand for this set of entrepreneurs is to therefore change the perception of electric bikes as slow and stodgy. Ather's smart scooter S340, claims a top speed of 72 kmph, has a touchscreen dashboard with built-in navigation and allows riders to set up multiple profiles. The battery lasts for 60 km on a single one-hour charge. Tork's e-bike T6X, offers a 100km range before it needs to be recharged and delivers a top speed of 100kmph along with navigation. 

"We wanted to give the consumers something that they have not ever seen," says Shelke, the chief executive of Tork Motorcycles. 

To meet their goals, these founders are focusing on building the right teams. Mehta and Jain of Ather, started with a few interns in 2013, but today have a team of more than 120 engineers and are looking to add a 100 more in the coming months. This approach has helped them build most technology in-house, control quality and put in place processes for quick expansion when demand spikes. This includes setting up back-end systems like a robust vendor ecosystem

The future

All four startups that ET spoke to are targeting different areas of the market, at present. Ather Energy is building a scooter, Tork is building a bike, Spero is a cycle-cum-e-bike while Ampere's scooter is primarily aimed at users in tier 2 and tier 3 towns.

Coimbatore-based Spero has built an e-cycle which comes with a motorcycle like an accelerator. One can either paddle away or simply accelerate through the traffic. "We see a revival in cycling, users are not looking at travelling more than 100 kilometres, so (the vehicle) can be charged at home or office. The adoption will be faster than other electric vehicles," says Manikandan S, the founder of Spero. "A place like Bengaluru also has cycling tracks. This is wonderful opportunity to take it to the next stage." 

Spero comes with a five-speed digital gear system and riders can rev up from zero kmph to 25 kmph in just 10 seconds. The e-bike is also the country's first crowd-sourced electric bike and has raised Rs 66 lakhs. 

The oldest of this cohort, Ampere Vehicles—set up in 2008-already has multiple products, all targeted at tier 2 and tier 3 towns. "We work on providing a long life of five to seven years for the battery," says Hemalatha Annamalai, CEO of Ampere Vehicles.

Experts are of the view that as the market matures, ancillary businesses will also evolve. Startups that provide services like battery assembly/production, charging infrastructure and e-vehicles as-aservice, will become a part of the mainstream. "The key areas will be batteries, management systems and chargers. For startups with limited resources, this will be a large advantage," says Maini.

Founders, on their part, are hoping the government will play its role in accelerating the process by helping to create a robust network of charging stations and framing more favourable policies. While there are a host of policies in place, there is need for the "dots to connect." "The government must ensure easy availability of low-cost finance for regional players. In electric vehicles, batteries must be given concessional import taxes regardless of usage, as it completely eliminates road pollution," says Annamalai of Ampere.

The challenges

These companies are also doing their bit to build charging infrastructure by partnering with cafes, restaurants, malls and apartment complexes. Tork Motorcycles has already set up six units in Pune and Ather Energy has plans to set up enough charging units across Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune, so that a user will not be more than two kilometres away from a unit.    

For such facilities to be widely used, there is need for standardisation across the industry both in battery and charging infrastructure. "All electric vehicles use their own pins, hopefully this will be standardised in the next 12-36 months and charging models will become universal," says Manikandan of Spero.   

"Globally this is already happening. Battery rental systems will also evolve." The greater challenge is to withstand competition from advanced markets like China, Europe and the US. "They are a different scale of startups- focused on certain segments, many companies have not been successful in translating whatever works in China into India, " says Maini, who is of the view that Indian startups looking at "Indian concerns and processes will be successful." Maini is also a part of the government panel which is working on pushing the electric vehicle agenda in the country. 

The startups also hope that large corporations will work more closely with them to push their own clean energy agenda. "In times of technology transition and disruption, which is where the electric vehicle industry is now, big players have never delivered, only new players have," says Annamalai of Ampere Vehicles.

Source :  Electric dreams: The story of Indian market for electric two-wheelers