New Delhi: Raptee, an electric bike manufacturer which is yet to launch its first e-bike in the market believes that whether it is ex-factory or ex-showroom subsidy a direct effect won’t be seen on the company as it wants to play in the mid-premium price range.
With the subsidy cut happening in the auto industry, major automakers have decided to slash down their product prices. This electric bike (e-bike) company believes subsidy reduction is for good and will not bring much effect on it. Ola last week has announced its slashing of prices of Ola S1X+ by INR 25,000 making it available at INR 85,000. Ather last month reduced prices of 450S scooter by INR 20,000.
Subsidy is going for good and will enhance the product quality thus bringing more safety and wiser options for the potential customers to choose among said Dinesh Arjun, Co-founder and CEO, Raptee Energy. He has though acknowledged the fact that subsidy was a right step for people to adopt electric vehicles in India. Talking about the holistic figure, he believes sales of vehicles for some time may be reduced after subsidy reduction, but the larger figure will benefit both the OEMs and the customers.
Raptee is all set to bring its first e-bike on the Indian roads in the first quarter(April-June) of FY25, with the estimated price range of INR 2.5 lakh – INR 3 lakh. Raptee plans to launch its e-bike in the mid-premium segment and has showcased its first e-bike at the Global Investors Meet in Tamil Nadu in January.The company has spent almost 5 years on the R&D of its bike, making it the first high-voltage drivetrain bike which can be charged through any of the available public chargers with a life-cycle of 10-12 years. Which he believes is the unique selling point of the vehicle .“Today we are the only electric 2W company whose port is CCS2 compatible with the public charging infrastructure. It can also be charged at home from 0–80% within 45 mins”, Dinesh Arjun said.
Talking more about car charging standard in Raptee’s bike, he said Raptee will become the first e-motorcycle to adopt single charging standard (CCS2) due to patented High Voltage Drivetrain. He further says Raptee’s e-bike can handle both AC and DC fast charging. A CCS2 connector will be given by the company free of cost.
Raptee is going to have its third fundraising round, Series A round in the coming 3 months. Earlier Raptee has raised approximately INR 5 million in the past two rounds and is aiming to raise INR 20 million this time. Dinesh told ETAuto that this fundraising will be done to scale-up the production of the vehicles.
“Our product will directly be positioned against the 250 cc vehicles and is going to be the product positioning above the 150 cc pulsars and below the Royal Enfields of today. That’s the positioning that we’re looking for,” Dinesh Arjun told ETAuto.
Talking about its future plans with ETAuto, Dinesh said the company plans to have 10,000 vehicle production for the coming financial year, among which half of them will be done this year. Raptee is planning to bring its second bike on road by the end of 2025 or after 18 months of the launch of its first e-bike.
About the post-launch plans he said, first, we need to start selling vehicles and putting vehicles on the road, but second is how we can leverage the data that these vehicles are going to generate to make the products truly better”.
 of FY25, with the estimated price range of INR 2.5 lakh – INR 3 lakh. Raptee plans to launch its e-bike in the mid-premium segment and has showcased its first e-bike at the Global Investors Meet in Tamil Nadu in January.){kind=link}