The Advent of Electric Bikes In India: Opportunities & Challenges
Hey Techies..!!
That’s a lovely day for me at medium.
Last year I went to India, where I felt the diversity in the tech industry. I have been to Bangalore, Hyderabad & Mumbai for a couple of days.
Electric two-wheelers, which include vehicles ranging from electric bicycles to electric scooters, are becoming increasingly popular and important forms of urban transport in Asian cities. While electric two-wheeler’s popularity is evident in the PRC, their acceptance and adoption in other Asian countries are much more modest.
The potential environmental benefit to Asian cities of electric two-wheelers could be significant, especially if electric two-wheelers replaced gasoline scooters and motorcycles.
Some 4,50,000 electric two-wheelers were sold in India in the past eight years. The potential of electric vehicles in this segment is massive, say industry executives, given that more than 17 million two-wheelers are sold annually in the country.
I don’t want to lie but the present situation of Electric Bikes in India is not such electrifying. They are stuffed between the Devil and the Deep Sea. Presently most of the “Electric Bikes” in the market are low speed 25 Kms “mobility bikes” and 45 Kmph bikes that will get you from place to place. 25 Kmph is almost the speed of a Cycle when you are cycling at good speed.
Bikes are supposed to be Power Objects, Bikes are supposed to be Mean, Masculine, tyres huger than biceps… sex objects supposed to attract the opposite sex. People own it to portray sexiness. Heck, even girls ride power bikes for that macho feel…. kind of to do the forbidden.
But the present trend of e-bikes in India is anything but that.
Presently the e-bikes in the market are more feminine than masculine. There is nothing more feminine a machine sold in any market. I feel that is one of the major reasons of the setback.
Most of the E-Bikes available today in India have feminine specifications, small tires and small load carrying features etc giving you a feeling that they are brought in from China as Knocked Down Assemblies and reassembled in some factory in India. Such e-bikes are very popular in China due to widely available public charging networks ban on petrol vehicles and good dedicated cycle paths unlike the situation in India. In fact, it is very easy for the government can put Solar Panels on all Bus Stops and put plugs where people can charge their mobiles, laptops, bikes or cars… but seems like the Government is not much interested in public interest.
The only Country to withdraw concession for Electric Vehicles:
Can you believe it?… the Indian Government, in fact, withdrew the concessions given to the EV industry?!!!? Mahindra waited for the Budget announcement to release the E2O and ended up wasting precious 3 months. So you know what they mean when they say “Who killed the Electric Car?”
So let me come back to the E-Bike scenario of the Indian Market.
These bikes are available in 2 models — One like the Scooty, headlights, telescopic shock absorbers in front and rear, waterproof storage for batteries to protect from rain etc has better riding quality but smaller wheels. The other is the bicycle with a motor in the wheel. These have bigger size wheels but due to no shock absorbers have a rough ride.
E-bikes of 25Km speed are actual Cycle replacement. But then why would you want to replace a Cycle which is good free but also a GYM that keeps you fit. The fact is with a Cycle you can travel max 2 to 3 km at a time and you will end up sweaty… meaning you can’t take a cycle to office or college.
Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest motorcycle maker by sales volume, is working on developing electric two-wheelers in-house at its Centre for Innovation & Technology in Jaipur. This is in addition to its strategic investment in electric two-wheeler startup Ather Energy.
Chennai-based TVS Motor is also developing an electric scooter (codename U218), which may hit the roads sometime next financial year. Bajaj Auto has reportedly announced plans to launch a new brand, Urbanite, for electric vehicles.
I have also heard about an organization called “VEGA BIKES”, they are working on providing competitive intelligent e-Bikes at nominal rates. They are been incubated by GUSEC community made by Government of Gujarat. They are breaking the stereotypes & ready to enter the market in Jan 2019.
check more info about them:https://www.facebook.com/vegabikes4u
The Indian people need a proactive public policy to boost solar-power charging points for electric scooters in urban areas. There’s also the need to incentivize roof-top solar power for the purpose. To generate 1kwh of solar power, about 10 square meters of roof-top space is required. A 0.5-kWh facility will half the requirement. Solar roof-tops of about 0.5–1kwh can charge small e-vehicles overnight, and also provide ‘green’ power for household inverters.
Time has the best answer to the future fortune of these companies.
Let’s hope for the sustainable development of the world..!!
Fingers crossed.