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The Bengaluru company is looking to bring in 5,000 of the e-scooters initially, and is setting up a separate subsidiary to build out its electric vehicles strategy

Yamaha Motor Co’s high-end electric scooter—the EC-05 launched recently in Taiwan—could soon be available on Indian roads. Drivezy India, Bengaluru’s vehicle rental company, plans to launch the e-bike on its platform as early as November.

Launched in June, the EC-05 is borne of a collaboration between Yamaha and Taiwan’s Gogoro Inc, a company that has built its own electric scooter as well as a network of charging stations. Designed by Yamaha, the EC-05 is built using Gogoro’s production vehicle platform.

“We are setting up a separate electrics subsidiary and will raise about $20 million to $25 million for it,” Drivezy CEO Ashwarya Pratap Singh told Forbes India in a recent interview. Singh is holding on to details, but said Drivezy is already scouting locations and seeking partnerships to set up a battery-swapping network for the scooters.

In Taiwan, Gogoro has set up a network of 1,300 battery-swapping stations called GoStations. It’s not clear if Drivezy will replicate them in India. With real estate being prohibitively expensive in Indian metros, Drivezy is looking to innovate by way of partnerships with companies that might mutually benefit from sharing their existing real estate.

For example, Drivezy is in talks with hospitality chain Oyo to set up charging infrastructure at some of its hotels. Drivezy’s existing petrol-driven scooters are already available at several Oyo hotels in Bengaluru. Another way is to tap Drivezy’s nascent but growing franchisee network, currently operational in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune. Over the next six months, Drivezy expects to increase its franchisees from 12 to about 50 to 60. Most of these franchisees have their own real estate; for instance, many of these are vehicle dealerships.

Source - http://www.forbesindia.com/article/s...haring/54767/1

And a dumb video to doubt the news -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeExz1HbMMs