[T.U.P]

This is my first fully-fledged thread in T-BHP, so please do bear with me for any errata made!

The electric automobile scene in India has always been frugal,to say the least. Electric vehicles(EVs) ,while offering clean energy and lower running costs, fail to sell from lack of proper servicing, higher replacement costs and above all - a relatively new market in India. That being said, EVs have recently started to sell with the advent of the Mahindra e2o - a car which took the Reva and made it bigger and more usable. Now, is there any reason why there are no electric bikes in India? This could be a good market with lots of potential buyers, provided the manufacturers produce with Indian standards in mind. Motorbeam.com, an Indian website, recently wrote an article about an electric bike called the Zero-SR , a bike scheduled to be launched in 2014 in the U.S.A, a country which has long accepted electric bikes warmly. I was looking at the specs of the bike, and they don't seem bad at all. 0-100km/hr in 3.5 seconds, and a top speed of 164km! Along with a mileage of 220km per charge in the city! However, it does come with a hefty price of INR 10.72 lakhs, and the company is not aiming to sell them in India. That being said, electric bikes may have a huge potential in our country, even at that price. I would like to know what the other members think. This could be a good idea worth investing in!

link to the Motorbeam article - http://www.motorbeam.com/bikes/2014-...ions-pictures/

Safe travels,
T.U.P.

[Rehaan]

The average Indian motorcycle buyer is extremely cost sensitive.

The price difference between variants for commuter bikes is probably less than the average car buyer would spend on a set of floor-mats.

Electric vehicles are still much more expensive than their gas guzzling counterparts - so its not going to work in the commuter segment just yet.

Maybe we'll see the superbikes going electric first, and then a trickle down effect? Link

Did you know, Mahindra manufactures an electric scooter called the 'GenZe'? But.. it's for the USA market only: GenZe site



And here's some related threads.

cya
R

[T.U.P]

Hello, and I'm extremely sorry for the late reply. I had trouble with my T-BHP account, so logging in was a problem.

It's true, electric bikes are more expensive than petrol/diesel. But, and correct me if I'm wrong, the main reason why they're so expensive is the battery,which are not Indian-made. Why can't we make our own batteries? That might save nearly half the costs incurred in production.

Regards,
T.U.P

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by T.U.P

...correct me if I'm wrong, the main reason why they're so expensive is the battery,which are not Indian-made. Why can't we make our own batteries?

I'm not sure - but if i had to guess, I'd say the raw materials required for large-scale Li-Ion battery production aren't as easily available in countries other than where they are currently produced.

cya
R