Rahul Sharma Revolts Ahead To Create Tesla In India’s Two-Wheeler Market
Rahul Sharma, who created a revolution in the smartphone space by bring in affordable products, was deeply inspired by Elon Musk’s vision of developing groundbreaking e-cars. Take a cue from his achievements, he is now determined to create an Indian ‘Tesla’, albeit in the two-wheeler space. As a mechanical engineer by qualification, he always found mobility and the expanse of opportunities it offers very intriguing and is now gearing up to change the mobility sector with his new venture - Revolt Intellicorp - started with his personal investment. Headquartered in Gurgaon, the company is all to roll out India’s first AI-enabled motorcycle, a zero emission vehicle which doesn’t compromise on the performance or aesthetics of a petrol-driven two-wheeler.
While talking exclusively with BW Businessworld, Sharma revealed, “People like Elon Musk (from Tesla) and Steve Jobs (from Apple Inc.), who went the extra mile and disrupted their markets, have been my source of inspiration. (So) we are talking about a smart (and) connected vehicle (for India). We are we talking about creating a Tesla in two wheelers here wherein you walk inside the showroom and (are) greeted nicely. You will be enlightened about the product and what you can do on this (vehicle’s) smart screen and everything. Its a brilliant experience vis-à-vis what is actually happening now. Above all, the bike will be equipped with a 250-watt lithium-ion battery.”
Sharma, who is also the founder of YU Televentures and the co-founder of Micromax Informatics, revealed that he aims to make personal mobility practical, affordable and sustainable. His newfound company Revolt has already earmarked Rs. 500 for establishing a manufacturing facility in Manesar, Haryana, which will be having an annual production capacity of 120,000 vehicles in the first phase.
“We have a mixture of talent from the automobile (domain) and the software (domain) from the tech world because we feel right now the whole automobile market is like a feature phone market. You have to give an analogy of mobile phones (to cars and bikes). So (in a) feature phone market, you sell your phone your relationship ends. But in the smartphone market, it starts because you can upsell apps, you can sell videos you do multiple things,” revealed Sharma, who is a mechanical engineering from University of Saskatchewan and has attended the Owner/President Management (OPM) program at Harvard Business School.
“We are aware that the new-age consumer hates making compromises, and this became our first point of consideration while conceptualizing our products. We are working on the premise of making intelligent vehicles that don’t compromise on the form factor and performance of ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles. To this, we added our tech prowess and our ambition is to replace them completely,” added Sharma. Without revealing the price points of the product, he maintained, “Our quest is to disrupt the market. We are not saying that this bike will be priced at Rs. 3 lakh or Rs. 4 lakh. But we have been known to disrupt the markets in the past (in the smartphone space) and are confident of replicating the same in this (automobile) market too. This bike will be competing with existing players.”
Talking about the soon-to-be launched AI-based product Sharma revealed, “We have built a product which would be a crossover of Bajaj Pulsar and KTM Duke (in terms of appearance). So it will score over others in terms of design aspirations and desirability. So in terms of features, this bike will be equipped with 50 more features than the normal bikes. Thirdly, it will be cheaper in terms of total cost of ownership than the current ICE engine (bikes).”
Also, the company has maintained that a high-profile experienced R&D team has been working for close to 2 years with a joint vision of introducing the product.
Talking about the company’s rich pool of talent, Sharma stated, “The sort of people who are there are from different domains and not necessarily from automobiles (background). We have great brains from the automotive world who understand (certain solutions like) braking, chassis, (etc.), very well. But then we have a very competent software team who is working on the complete software as this is a 4G enabled product. This means to say that you (as a consumer) will be able to control the complete product from your phone itself. You will be able to see where are your, where you're going, how you're going, your driving pattern, (etc.). You will have your own analyzers too on your phone itself i.e.-FOTA, firmware over the air. So the software team was super critical for the product development.”
Rahul Sharma, who is transitioning from mobiles to mobility,outlined his ambition to gain a double-digit market share in the entire two-wheeler market in the next few years.
“We want to give connected mobility in each and every home of this country (and to) each and every one of this country. This means to say that everybody should be able to have a connected two wheeler (and) that is our vision. Keeping the social impact in mind, we also want to reduce the pollution levels of this country. If you see from top 20 most polluted cities in the world, 15 are from India which is not something to be proud of (and) we need to take these cities of off this category. We also aim to make this country greener and less dependent on oil,” affirmed Sharma while signing off.
