Indian Two wheeler EV is growing at rapid pace, you can now find OLA, Ather and various other two wheeler EV even in small cities and town, and they have been expanding in 2 & 3 tier cities rapidly. There is a lot of interest in small 2 wheel EV's but there are certain quirks which are hampering the adoption of electric two wheelers. Let's dive deep into the electric 2 wheeler problem and where the manufacturers need to focus.
There are two categories of Indian buyers who want electric scooters & bikes. First is the one who want cost effective vehicle on which he can daily commute on a short distance and is mostly fed up with the ever rising fuel prices in India. Second are those who don't care much about the price and want several features, performance on their vehicle. For the first category of buyers there are brands like Okinawa, Okaya, Ampere, Hero electric and other small regional manufacturers. Products from these brand built at a cost hence, the overall product is not soo great like the top speed generally capped at 40-60 kmph, acceleration is okayish, built is not so good, cheap plastics are used all over the body and lack any features but one thing which they get right is the price which starts around ₹60,000 - ₹70,000 which is closer to the ICE counterpart but they have much better built quality and features. The second category is priced lot higher at around ₹1.5 lacs and the there are two players which dominate this category are OLA and Ather. At this price range you can get a much better product with very good built quality, performance and features.
Features and all are good and if you are paying above ₹1lac you expect more than just a basic good handling and riding vehicle but most people don't have such budget, mostly people buy vehicles in range of ₹60,000 - ₹70,000 range but at this range what you get is a very cheap plastic built, slow moving and not soo engaging vehicle, in plain language the mechanicals and overall finish of the product is pathetic. What the manufacturers need to do is bring the mechanicals, chassis and powertrain from the the premium products and leave the feature as optional to the user and charge the user extra according to the feature. If the OLA or Ather could bring the same chasse and mechanical feel to lower price point with lower range as most people don't travel long distances like above 30 Km on these vehicles and to be honest nobody is going to be ballistic or go racing with these small electric scooters and bike, so if the acceleration and top is less then also people would be not complaining much. The aim should be to bring the price point near ₹80,000 with smaller battery pack, power efficient motors which give preference to efficiency more than performance and limited features. And with the launch of OLA S1 Air and Ather 450S it seems like both brands are taking steps in correct direction.
