The electric vehicle revolution is picking up momentum in the two-wheeler space, but why do we so predominantly see electric scooters everywhere compared to electric bikes? And is the day of the e-bike finally on the anvil?
Anjali Rattan believes it’s finally time. The entrepreneur, chairperson of RattanIndia Enterprises, bought over the electric bike brand Revolt from serial entrepreneur Rahul Sharma (who also launched the mobile phone brand Micromax) which has so far churned out five electric models, including Tuesday’s new launch in the commuter segment, RV BlazeX.
“With advanced connectivity, superior range, and cutting-edge design, this launch marks a major milestone in making sustainable mobility accessible to all,” she said unveiling the new model which will go on sale from March 1. At just short of 1.15 lakh rupees, the bike is price-competitive even when compared to conventional engine bikes in this segment. Revolt RV BlazeX claims a range of 149 km on a single charge and has a top speed of 85 kmph.
“60% of two-wheelers in India are motorcycles. It’s not that the customers don’t want electric bikes,” she said, referring to the ubiquity of scooters in the electric mobility space compared to motorbikes. “Anyway, you will see a big boom happening.”
Anjali is preparing for it by looking at ramping up capacity with a new R&D Centre as well as a manufacturing plant in Chennai. This will add on to the present plant near Gurugram in Haryana which has a capacity of 1.8 lakh vehicles a year. While Revolt has so far sold 45,000 bikes in the country since its inception, she is hoping that she will be selling near that figure just in the next year alone.
Having led the electric bike market however niche it may be for the last six years or so, Revolt/Rattan are also covering their flanks. Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola Electric, which made a big splash with electric scooters over the past year or so, has been talking about getting into the e-bike space for some time now. And with their muscle might, they will be way more of a competitor than the rival electric bikes Revolt has had to face till now, be it the troubled Tork from Pune or the Ultraviolette from Bengaluru.
Royal Enfield, the cult king of premium motorcycles in the country, just unveiled its first electric bike, titled ‘Flying Flea’ just the other day, though it is expected to go on sale only next year.
Then there are the biggies of the two-wheeler world, like Hero MotoCorp. Hero is the biggest ICE motorcycle manufacturer in the world, but its crossover into the electric space has been marred by internal family squabbles, slow decision making and delays in their joint ventures. The latter, with the US company Zero Motorcycles, is expected to spawn a performance electric bike soon, and considering Hero’s stranglehold over distribution and network might, there will be no pushover.
All these movements mean the conventional wisdom of how the motorcycle form does not work well for fitting an electric format may no longer hold the wind. This had ranged from the fact that while scooters had a natural space to fit in the electric battery under the seat, in bikes fitting it into the middle area (where the petrol tank is in conventional bikes) would have caused imbalance in the centre of gravity. The bigger motors, combined with a heavy battery, would have meant the bike would lack when it comes to performance, which many riders expect from a motorcycle vis-a-vis a scooter.
The range would also have come in as an issue since scooters are meant for inside-city commuting while bikers do tend to go on long-distance drives. Charging stations and limits of how much a two-wheeler can run on a single charge, would then become an issue.
However, these reasons may not stand once the market evolves to acquire a certain volume and customer expectations also expand. As it seems to be happening slowly.