Bengaluru: Because the high-performance electrical bike maker Ultraviolette Automotive is in its second yr out there, it plans to develop the retail presence outdoors of its dwelling metropolis and foray into new markets abroad.
Chatting with ETAuto, Narayan Subramaniam, CEO & Co-Founder, Ultraviolette stated, “This yr we’ll develop our retail presence to twenty extra cities in India. Now we have began onboarding sellers in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kolkata, and Delhi.”
Presently, the EV maker has only one retail retailer in Bengaluru. The brand new shops will come up in two formats- Ultraviolette House Station and Ultraviolette House Pod, with the previous being a bigger retailer providing gross sales and repair. The latter might be a touchpoint, smaller in dimension and providing check rides.
The growth comes with the launch of its F77 Mach 2 on Wednesday, which is offered at a extra accessible introductory worth of INR 2.99 lakh for first 1000 prospects. The mannequin affords a 323 km IDC vary and comes with a ten.3 kWh battery pack. It delivers 30 kW (40.2 hp) with 100 Nm of peak torque, and accelerates from 0 to 60 km/hr in 2.8 seconds reaching a prime velocity of 155 km/hr.
The brand new electrical bike comes with 3-level Traction Management System, 10 ranges of Regenerative Braking, Dynamic Stability Management, Hill Maintain, and connectivity options together with Anti-Collision Warning Programs, Fall and Towing Alerts, and the Delta Watch.
Early this yr, ETAuto broke the information of the nation’s second largest gas retailer HPCL becoming a member of arms with Ultraviolette to arrange EV charging networks.
Enterprise Development
The startup, based in 2016, took about six years to introduce its flagship high-performance electrical bike F77 in India. With a manufacturing unit in Jigani Industrial space, Bengaluru, the corporate’s maiden product was launched in November 2022 in two variants– Unique and Recon. Not too long ago, it additionally launched the House Version of the mannequin.
This yr, it goals to realize money circulation breakeven by the second half, whereas persevering with to put money into R&D and expertise.
With the F77 Mach 2, Ultraviolette plans to promote 5000 models out there this yr. Final yr, it bought 500 models with gross sales predominantly coming from Bengaluru.
Its subsequent product within the lineup is the F99 which is anticipated to be launched on the Bharat Mobility Present subsequent yr. “We’ll convey this in a race-spec variant first, adopted by a business launch.”
The efficiency bike section– the class the place Ultraviolette operates– sells about 1 lakh models within the nation each month. Subramaniam says the shopper base is of their mid 20s to late 30s and the competitors is with established manufacturers together with Kawasaki, KTM, BMW, amongst others.
Whereas the electrical scooters have been taking the lead within the electrical two wheeler area, the electrical bike section within the nation is occupied by a handful of startup manufacturers, collectively clocking about 1000 models. This contains Revolt, Hop Electrical, Tork Motors, Oben, Orxa. Within the coming months, corporations like Raptee, Matter, Komaki are anticipated to enter the area.
In the meantime, Hero MotoCorp will develop electrical bikes in partnership with US-based electrical bike maker Zero Bikes. Royal Enfield can also be engaged on two electrical bike platforms– an in-house and one other in collaboration with Spanish startup Stark Motorbike.
Worldwide Play
Ultraviolette sees Europe as a “very excessive potential market” due to its motorcycling tradition and the accelerating electrification development in 4 wheelers.
“We see a whitespace in electrical bikes, particularly in southern Europe. Now we have already on-boarded some distributors. We may have one distributor per nation. In the long run, we goal to have a few 60:40 ratio for home and exports,” Subramaniam stated.
The corporate launched the F77 in Italy in November final yr, adopted by Turkey in March this yr. By the subsequent quarter, it’s aiming to start deliveries in Turkey, Germany and Spain. It says the fashions are compliant to European rules.
