Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma gets into electric two-wheeler biz

Homegrown mobile handset maker Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma on Thursday announced his foray into smart mobility with the unveiling of an electric motorcycle which is expected to hit the roads by June this year.

Sharma, who is transitioning from mobiles to mobility, has set up Revolt Intellicorp Pvt Ltd, a firm wholly-owned by him with a view “to make personal mobility practical, affordable and sustainable” earmarking around ₹ 500 crore of investment.

“I always wanted to get into the smart mobility sector. I had even met many global players to foray into the segment. During this period I even considered investing in some of the existing companies that were manufacturing electric vehicles but somehow it did not materialise,” Sharma told PTI.

He claimed Revolt Intellicorp is “here to disrupt this industry for sure” and it is going to be a game changer in the automobile industry.

Having roped in automobile industry veterans as part of the company’s R&D team, Sharma said they have been working for the last two years to introduce India’s first AI-enabled motorcycle without compromising on the performance or aesthetics.

“We are making an ecosystem of connected devices, bike is one of them. There will be many connected devices which will come under this venture.” Sharma said.

The electric motorcycle from Revolt Intellicorp will be comparable with conventional motorcycles in terms of performance, he claimed but declined to give more details saying it would be shared at the time of launch.

Explaining the rationale behind getting into mobility leaving the smartphone world, Sharma said,”I was not happy with the kind of products (electric two-wheelers) that were being produced here, so two years back I decided to get into the industry.”

He further said,”the idea was how can we democratise this whole space in automobiles like the way we did in mobile phones...there is immense opportunity in this industry“.

Commenting on the tepid sales in electric vehicle segment, he said, “the market will not change until we come out with a product which is no less or equivalent or better than a two-wheeler with an internal combustion engine (ICE)“.

“Our idea is to change this market drastically over a period of time. That is the whole objective, that is the whole opportunity,” Sharma said.

Revolt Intellicorp is working on the premise of making intelligent vehicles that don’t compromise on the form factor and performance of ICE vehicles, he added.

“To this we added our tech prowess and our ambition is to replace them completely,” Sharma said.

When asked about investment in the new venture, he added: “Right now Rs 400-500 crore will go into it. The objective is to transform and completely disrupt this industry and get a major chunk of market share of the total two- wheeler industry and not just the electric segment.”

The company’s initial goal is to get into double-digit market share, he added.

Headquartered in Gurugram, Revolt Intellicorp has a manufacturing facility in Manesar, Haryana. Spread over 1 lakh square feet, the facility boasts a production capacity of 1.2 lakh vehicles per annum for first phase.