CK Motors, an arm of Tirupur-based ₹800-crore CK Group companies engaged in textiles business, has entered into a joint manufacturing and marketing agreement with PURE EV, an electric vehicle start-up incubated by IIT-Hyderabad.

As part of the pact, CK Motors is setting up a factory at an initial investment of ₹50 crore at Coimbatore to manufacture EVs with a capacity of 5,000 electric scooters per month.

The factory will be operational in a couple of months. In the second phase, the company aims to invest another ₹50 crore.

“We have developed the necessary eco-system with supplier base in Coimbatore for our electric vehicle manufacturing. We will initially have at least 50 per cent localisation and increase to 100 per cent soon. Our scooters will come with the patented lithium-ion battery technology,” C Guna Sekaran, Business Head, CK Motors Pvt Ltd, said here.

PURE EV is reported to have sold more than 2,000 units of its electric two-wheelers that include ePluto 7G, a high speed scooter at a starting price of ₹79,000 (on-road price will be about ₹91,000), ePluto (low speed scooter), priced at ₹71,999, among others.

In addition to manufacturing, CK Motors plans to set up at least 50 dealers in Tamil Nadu in the next few months and will expand to other States in the next phase.

Gopinath, Head – Sales & Marketing, CK Motors, said the company would also sell the PURE EV’s patented lithium batteries separately for home inverter/UPS, genset and solar power storage applications as it would provide better benefits when compared to lead-acid batteries.

He said the company is also working on introducing electric motorcycle, electric three and four-wheelers this year. CK Motors also showcased electric bicycles that offer a range of 50 km on a single charge and electric moped with 60 km range.

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