Ultra Motor India (UMI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Ultra Motor Company of UK, plans to launch the Lithium-ion charged light electric vehicles(LEV) in India in a year's time from now, after it entered the market this year with two petrol-free electric two-wheelers.
The multinational electric vehicle(EV) company already sold a lithium battery charged low-speed two-wheeler in the US priced at $2000.
“We have the technology and if the US model,that is more akin to a cycle, is launched as a scooter here, it could cost around 30 to 40 per cent more. The Indian market is not matured for such a highly priced electric two-wheeler now”, said Deba Ghoshal, director marketing, UMI.
Lithium batteries cost nearly four times that of a lead-acid battery,has more life and can also give more power as more fuel cells could be packed in. The two UMI models 'Marathon' and 'Velociti' launched this year run on lead-acid batteries that need to be replaced once in two years or after 20,000 kilometres(km).
The cost of replacing the entire battery unit comprising four batteries is around Rs 6000.
“We are trying to develop an alternate business plan for the lithium EVs. We would sell the vehicle and the battery separately where the battery could come in an attractive financial repayment package”, Ghoshal said.
UMI would be in talks with personal financing companies for the same. Of the new models, Marathon is a low-speed electric scooter that can run up to 100km on single charge at 25km per hour (kmph). Priced at Rs32,146 it comes at a 20 per cent cheaper price compared to a petrol scooter and is targeted at the young lifestyle bicycle riders.
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The Velociti, in comparison, is a high-speed scooter at 40 kmph priced slightly higher at Rs 36,826 ex-showroom in Kolkata.
The cost of running a Marathon is as low as five paise per kilometer and a Velociti costs around 10 paise per kilometer.
UMI has sold 22,000 EVs in the country in FY08 riding on the back of a major dealer network expansion. It plans to further increase the number of dealerships from 150 now to 250 within the fiscal.
The company is targeting a turnover of $22 million in FY09, and wants to take it up to $88 million in 2009-10. It would invest Rs140 crore on product development, sales, marketing and distribution in the coming three years.
Of this, it has earmarked around 20 per cent for manufacturing facilities. It now outsources manufacturing to Hindustan Batteries Ltd (HBL) at its plant in Hyderabad.
UMI is coming up with another contract manufacturing facility with a capacity of 200 vehicles per day near Delhi in January. UMI has invested $20 million till date in India. It started off with a technical collaboration and joint marketing tie-up with Hero Cycles.
After the disengagement of the partnership in April 2008, 'Maxi', low-speed scooter remained with Hero Cycles.