Ola + Etergo Electric Scooter: Ola to introduce e-scooter by Jan 2021 in India.
- Ola Electronic is getting ready to enter the two-wheeler space in India next year.
- The two-wheeler’s price is expected to be Under INR 1 Lakh
- The Dutch firm, Etergo has designed and engineered to build this two-wheeler scooter.
- The company is planning to shift the EV production scooter production from the Netherlands to India.
Ride-hailing major Ola Electric (Bengaluru-based company) is readying itself to introduce electric two-wheeler scooter in India and Europe will cost it less than one lakh. As per the source.
As per Ola electric and App Scooter, it will have home charging support and can be also used public charging infrastructure. The App Scooter mentioned to have three interchangeable battery modules – each one has 600w per module capacity provide an 80km range per module.
The ride-sharing unicorn Ola is going to launch App Scooter by Jan 2020. However, due to the lack of battery swapping stations in India, The App Scooter will also have an in-built port for public charging.
As per Inc 42, Ola is planning to set up a domestic production capacity to assemble around 2 million EVs and will look to vying with other famous two-wheeler Scooters like TVS Jupiter and Honda Activa.
Having a shortage of swappable battery stations in India has made Ola allow the owner to charge the E-scooter at home as opposed to be swapped at battery stations. Since the E- scooter will have an inbuilt port, owners don’t have to worry about compatibility with public charging stations.
Ola Electric Mobility Dream.
On 27 May 2020, Ola Electric made the announcement to acquire Amsterdam-based Etergo BV, to start operating as full-stack manufacture of E-Scooter. For the time being, The App Scooter will be produced at a production facility in the city of Emmen in the Netherlands.
The Etergo acquisition, however, has had some issues in the local market of the Netherlands. Acquisition of Netherlands based Etergo BV was originally fire of sale for Ola. After raising about €21 million in equity financing from over 6,000 individual investors, Ola electric acquired the Etergo BV for euro 3.75 million. As per Inc42.com, among 6,000 inventors some early investors were forced to agree on a share buyback at less than 90% of the actual price, many investors are now planning to take Etergo and Ola Electric to Court.
At the moment, Ola Electric is leveraging Etergo’s engineering capabilities, designing, and intellectual property to manufacture its stylish electric Scooter product. Earlier news had that Ola Electric is looking for land in India to set-up the world’s biggest E-Scooter manufacturers facility.
Competition in Two-Wheeler Space.
Etergo claims that Ola’s E-Scooter will compete with other petrol vehicle brands like Honda Activa and Its ilk. As per Industry figures, India has a huge market of EVs. More than 1,52,00 units of electric Two-Wheelers were sold in FY 2019-2020.
At the time, Ather Energy is the most funded startup in EV Space, had shown revenue report INR 48.8Cr in FY20, representing 4 times more growth from 11.7 Cr in the last facial year. While Ola Electric is selling E-rickshaws, and operating with a public charging point in cities like Delhi and Nagpur, showed revenue report INR 21Cr in the last facial year 2019, over losses 60 Car rupees in the same year.
Among the competition, currently, Ather Energy has developed high-end electric two-wheelers that sport LCD touchscreen. They have also developed specific kinds of software to update batter management. Ola’s Scooter sports the same feature with a touchscreen. However, detail about software updates hasn’t clear yet.
In Jan 2020, Ather’s 450X launched, and has delivered the scooter all across multiple cities in India. In contrast with Ola, Ather’s 450 and 450X scooter price starts at Rs 1.13 Lakh and ends up at RS 1.46 Lakh, these prices could be more expensive if Ola manages to accomplish the sub Rs 1 Lakh Mark (INR).
Ola will have a hard time doing a competition with Two-Wheeler EV Manufacture company Okinawa (Gurgaon-based company), Which sell mid-range Two-wheeler start from Rs 45K up to 75k (INR).
It would be interesting to see what kind of steps Ola is going to take to sell E-scooter successfully.
Note: All information has been taken from Inc42.com
