[TusharK]

One Moto has launched a retro-styled electric scooter called Electa. It costs Rs. 1.99 lakh (ex-showroom).



The One Moto Electa looks like a classic Vespa scooter. It has a circular headlamp with oval turn indicators placed on the front cowl and a flat seat with a luggage carrier at the rear.

The Electa uses a 4 kW DC hub motor that is powered by a 72V 45 Ah detachable lithium-ion battery. The company claims a top speed of 100 km/h and a maximum range of 150 km on a single charge. The battery can be recharged in 4 hours.



The One Moto Electa competes with the Ola S1, Bajaj Chetak, TVS iQube and Ather 450X.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Electromotive]

Ugh! More imported garbage.
This one feigns to be British. LoL. Seems like the promoter thinks pretending to be "phoren" will help justify the mark-up on what is essentially a Chinese import.

Well, few things have become quite clear:
- EV 2 wheeler competition is quite strong and prices will remain in check and will continue to go down in the future.
- Domestic ICE 2 wheeler price hikes are not justified.
- Better to wait a couple years for a new EV 2 wheeler
- All hail the Chinese overlords - they now have complete control of all components of an EV powertrain and thus will dictate supply and price.

[arzanali]

Originally Posted by Electromotive

Ugh! More imported garbage.
This one feigns to be British. LoL. Seems like the promoter thinks pretending to be "phoren" will help justify the mark-up on what is essentially a Chinese import.

Well, few things have become quite clear:
- EV 2 wheeler competition is quite strong and prices will remain in check and will continue to go down in the future.
- Domestic ICE 2 wheeler price hikes are not justified.
- Better to wait a couple years for a new EV 2 wheeler
- All hail the Chinese overlords - they now have complete control of all components of an EV powertrain and thus will dictate supply and price.

I don't usually reply or "butt in" to other's reply/point of view but before you do say something, especially with a negative connotation associated with it, please ensure you do thorough research. I personally know the owner of the company and as much as this could be a chinese product, the owner/founder is from Kerala, and first entered the market in Dubai, U.A.E. Last I met him, he was genuinely excited for launching the products in India.

Little does he know, Indians are gonna google, see the first result, and blurt out 'phoren, british, chinese, etc'. LOL.

[fhdowntheline]

True that- if this is imported garbage then one should ditch the smartphones or laptops on which they are typing out their replies on this forum or anywhere else. Just how much electronics stuff is imported will be easy to comprehend when one realizes one cannot lead a basic quality of life without the stuff.
And why not welcome foreign competition? What are the traditional Indian OEMs doing ? Do they have any product that is purely indigenous and claims this kind of performance?

[corvus corax]

One qualm I have with these e scooters is the 'jugaad' looking rear hub motor. With its fake silver 'design' to make it look like an alloy wheel or something? Looks cheap in my opinion. What could possibly go wrong if its left as it is, I fail to understand.

Picture courtesy : Indiamart

[Electromotive]

Originally Posted by arzanali

please ensure you do thorough research. I personally know the owner of the company ... the owner/founder is from Kerala, and first entered the market in Dubai, U.A.E. Last I met him, he was genuinely excited for launching the products in India.

You knowing (or stating that you know) someone doesn't lend any credibility to your argument.

- OneMoto is an UK registered company but company status is dormant. This is what being dormant means. hmmm.

- Their Head of Operations and Innovation - Harigovind Kaninghat is a guy specializing in visual communication. One would think the head of operation and innovation at an electric mobility company should have some engineering expertise, no?

- All the scooters are rebranded Chinese imports. Even the speed and range specs seems to have been inflated. A hub motor scooter doesn't have the range that one-moto is claiming given the battery size.

- The CS Group connection is fishy but I won't go into any detail without solid proof.

Originally Posted by arzanali

Little does he know, Indians are gonna google, see the first result, and blurt out 'phoren, british, chinese, etc'. LOL.

LOL is exactly the sentiment.

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

True that- if this is imported garbage then one should ditch the smartphones ...

Being an import doesn't make a product garbage. It being a low quality, cheaply-made garbage to begin with makes it garbage.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by Electromotive

Being an import doesn't make a product garbage. It being a low quality, cheaply-made garbage to begin with makes it garbage.

Not to comment on the specific product here, but these are labels that we Indians use to defend our own lack of capabilities to manufacture at scale.

At some levels it is also a perception. The same "low quality cheaply made garbage" smartphones are now leading brands in India. The same "low quality, cheaply made garbage" cars from Japan/Korea that were vilified in the US have been the mainstay of American domestic car market for years now.

[Electromotive]

Originally Posted by fhdowntheline

At some levels it is also a perception. The same "low quality cheaply made garbage" smartphones are now leading brands in India.

I agree. Below is what I had said in a previous post on the MG Astor thread. Hope that clears my stance. I give credit where it's due. OneMoto is not one of those cases.

Originally Posted by Electromotive

I think it is time we Indians keep our prejudices aside and learn a thing or two from the Chinese. Let's give credit where it is due and improve ourselves instead of living in a bubble of delusion.

"Chinese quality" no longer stands for poor quality; you get what you pay for. China now has home grown companies making world class products. These companies are moving beyond just copying, they are investing in R&D, they are innovating, some are the leaders in their fields. Examples: DJI, Xiaomi, Tencent, CATL, SAIC, BYD, Fosun, Alibaba - the list goes on.

The Chinese are dominating industry after industry and they are doing it the old fashioned way - giving the consumers what they want at a very reasonable price.

This is what good governance, long term planning and competent execution can achieve.

[sreeharipv]

Originally Posted by arzanali

I don't usually reply or "butt in" to other's reply/point of view but before you do say something, especially with a negative connotation associated with it, please ensure you do thorough research. I personally know the owner of the company and as much as this could be a chinese product, the owner/founder is from Kerala, and first entered the market in Dubai, U.A.E. Last I met him, he was genuinely excited for launching the products in India.

Little does he know, Indians are gonna google, see the first result, and blurt out 'phoren, british, chinese, etc'. LOL.

So, you are agreeing that it is one guy importing generic white label kit and trying to make a quick buck and this isn't a product of a company that spent a lot of time and capital in R&D to make what they think is the best product.

1.99 lakh ex-showroom for a flimsy scooter with 4 kW claimed power?

If the promoter of a Company is not also the face of the company/product, you know all you need to know of the product/company.

[Everlearner]

I'm a bit apprehensive on buying EVs from smaller players considering the various incidents like the below

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/elect...ife-india.html (Portable EV battery explodes while charging at night, claims its first life in India)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...re-mumbai.html (Electric scooter catches fire in Mumbai)

A new company making a product is not a bad thing, but the EV technology has lowered the barrier so much that anyone can import cheap Chinese EVs(not the good Chinese ones) and slap a brand name.

[shancz]

Originally Posted by Electromotive

Well, few things have become quite clear:

Agree with your points but :
- I'll keep the time to purchase an EV to 3-4 years factoring in the initial hiccups of first time vehicle manufacturers and sellers to be sorted out. The processes and logistics for dealing with spares, service and customer complaints.

- The safety side of things has to be sorted as well through mandatory regulations on safety but I doubt it will happen.
The discussion on thermal runaway in Li-Ion batteries was quite an eye opener and reaffirmed my concerns.

- My biggest concern is that people(outside of TBHP) seem to talk about the scooters as if they're mobile phones without any consideration for the quality of the product. I hope that they don't end up like mobile phones after 3 years.
Genuine concern being how the motor and battery age and how much do they cost to replace ?
I have seen some of those early scooters/e-bikes which used to retail for 25k, 5-6 years ago which developed issues with the motor and couldn't be repaired or repaired at a reasonable cost. They had to be junked.

People jumping in the EV bangwagon are there to make money and its fine, I just hope that they realise that a two wheeler isn't just a motor and battery pack with some wheels attached to the body but something much more evolved and integrated which needs time to get right.

[Gansan]

Buying an inexpensive Chinese brand smartphone is one thing. Buying a Chinese knockoff scooter is another. We are not going to ride the smartphone in traffic. Riding an unheard of automobile is a matter of life and limb. Choose wisely.

I am not deriding all Chinese items, though I don't think very highly of them. There will be reputed Chinese Ev manufacturers such as BYD. If they enter Indian market, that will be different.

Forget the motive power, designing a roadworthy automobile is an advanced science. The chassis and components must be scientifically and reputedly designed and manufactured. To a very high degree of precision. It is not a toy.

[Abhikumar629]

I still remember Bhavish Aggarwal from OLA calling out current gen scooters as "BORING". Leaving a few EV (OLA, Simple Energy, TVS, Bajaj OATS...OOPS Chetak), all other are boring and non-inspiring. Sometimes make me feel who will buy these (assembled in small shed) products once the mainstream manufacturers get inside the field.

Note: None of the aforementioned EV companies have a fully baked product yet but sooner or later, they will iron out the voids and come up with good offerings).

[Mr.Ogre]

While EV vehicles are still evolving and as many have rightly said, it is better to wait for at least another 4-5 years. I too feel 4-5 years is the right amount of time for EV technology to mature in terms of range, charging time, cost etc.

This is similar to early days of touch screen mobiles led by companies like HTC, O2 at one end of the spectrum, and then you had those big Chinese phones that had a touch screen, a camera and even a big antennae for the radio. A lot of us found them strange even ridiculed those phones. But look where are we now. Almost every smart phone is made in China and few of the major brands are Chinese. They have evolved so much in terms of manufacturing, packaging both in terms of Hardware and Software.

I see a similar trend with EV's, with both Chinese and existing players fighting it out for the market share. Then there are some also working in Hydrogen space. If anything, 4 to 5 years from now should be an exciting time to buy an EV.

[Venkatesh]

One Moto EV would be setting up a manufacturing facility near Hyderabad which will roll out electric 2-wheelers.



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