Bengaluru-headquartered electric mobility start-up Oben Electric is set to launch its first electric two-wheeler – electric bike Oben Rorr – on March 15 as the company bets on electrification in the motorcycle segment. 

Though the company is also contemplating launching electric scooters, it is planning to offer a range of electric bikes, with different specifications and performance, catering to a different set of two-wheeler buyers. 

“It was the B2B segment that spurred adoption of electric scooters initially. The requirement in the B2B segment was very minimal, as design or performance wouldn’t be the big focus areas. But then B2C demand picked up, and in this segment, factors such as performance, reliability etc, matter. Also, B2C buyers in the two-wheeler segment keep the vehicle for a minimum 7 years. Since we have strong R&D teams to churn out differentiated offerings, we have chosen to pursue the bike segment, initially,” Madhumita Agrawal, Co-Founder, Oben Electric told BusinessLine. 

India is a motorcycle market with annual volumes of about 15 million units, and Oben Electric sees some gaps in the segment that could be filled with a suite of products. “One needs a different set of skills to build a motorcycle for Indian customers, and Oben has a set of people that will design products that will appeal to prospective buyers here,” she said. 

The bike

The electric bike Oben Rorr will be priced in the range of ₹1-1.5 lakh, with a range of 200 kilometres and atop speed of 100 km/hr.

The company is setting up its manufacturing unit near Electronics City in Bengaluru and the capacity of the plant can be ramped up to 3 lakh units per year based on the demand. 

Charging infra

For charging infrastructure, the company is in the process of roping in partners. Later, the company will also look at setting up its own charging stations. Agrawal said the company has also roped in dealer partners for major locations and the network will be ramped up gradually. She declined to disclose details on the numbers. 

“The domestic electric 2W sales continue to have a dream run with a five-fold y-o-y jump in the 11 months of this fiscal, with 1.8 lakh unit sales. In February 2022, high-speed e2Ws saw an 18% MoM jump in retail sales to 32,416 units, said Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Vice President & Sector Head at Corporate Ratings, ICRA. 

 

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