Ace Motors to set up electric vehicle battery plant

Ace Motors, the Pune-based manufacturer of electric two-wheelers is planning to set up a battery manufacturing plant in Chakan, Pune, as a joint venture with a foreign firm.

For this, the company is in talks with leading battery manufacturers from China and Taiwan.

Through the battery manufacturing facility, the company is looking to fit locally-made batteries on its electric two-wheelers and will cater to other electric two-wheeler firms mushrooming in recent times who import most of their products from China and Taiwan.

The lifespan of a battery of an electric two-wheeler is approximately 400 charges which can last anything between two and a half, to three years.

"Lead prices have been going up consistently with the present cost of a battery pegged at $12. By entering into a JV with a company with specialised domain knowledge, we can bring battery costs down and also look at selling them to other electric two-wheeler players in the market," said Kumar Raval, MD, Ace Motors.

Financials for the plant were yet to be worked out, Raval added.

Ace Motors has so far invested up to Rs 6 crore in its Pune plant and plans to invest Rs 5-6 crore more in the next two years. The plant has a manufacturing facility for 4,000 electric bikes per month.

The company's two-wheelers are assembled with technical assistance from Changtong E Bike Company Ltd of China. Having established a liaison office in China, the company has started taking in export orders from Amsterdam, Germany and other European nations.

The company has also revealed it is working on two models powered between 500-1,000 watts which would run close to 60-70 km per charge and carry a load of 200 kg.

The models are undergoing homologation at the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) and would be launched after they are certified in a few months.

The company presently fields the Ace e-coupe and Ace e-trendy and e-sportz models in the market and has just launched the e-status, which has a run capacity of 100 km when fully-charged.

The charging time would be around 4-6 hours with an input voltage of 220 V. It is priced at Rs 32,000 (ex-showroom Ahmedabad).