Okinawa Scooters, one of the newest players in the domestic two-wheeler electric vehicle market on Monday (January 23) launched its premium scooter Ridge at a price tag of Rs 43,702 (ex-showroom Delhi).
The company claims that the scooter can over a distance of 80 km from a single charge of 1.5 hours.
Managing director Jeetendra Sharma said: "We have been able to solve the existing problem of low mileage and low speed in EVs (electric vehicles). Our scooters can run at a speed of 55km/hr, which is very decent. In future, we will upgrade technical deployment in our offerings."
Sharma also said that the company will launch another scooter in the next quarter which would give a mileage of up to 200km from a single charge.
The electric vehicle market of India is still in a nascent stage, selling around 22,000 units in 2015-16. The government plans to expand the market size to 5 million units per year in the next 4 years.
More than a dozen of companies have left the market due to poor infrastructure and lack of support from the government in the past.
"We are in talk with government to lift the sector. Availability of finance, awareness and charging points is the need of the hour. We want incentive under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles in India (FAME) scheme to be doubled in the upcoming budget," Sharma said.
Okinawa Scooters, founded in 2015, has one facility in Rajasthan with an existing capacity of 90,000 units annually. Depending on the demand, the company has plans to increase its manufacturing capacity.
"We will invest $40 million in the next 4 years in R&D, increasing our dealership and open one more facility," Sharma said.
BW Reporters
The author is Senior Correspondent with BW Businessworld
