Kolkata based EV start-up, Motovolt Mobility Private Limited has released e-bikes, URBN.
The e-bike, which is priced at Rs 49,999, is available for booking on the company’s website along with more than 100 offline retail touchpoints.
It offers a range of 120 km on a single charge and has a removable BIS-approved battery.
Motovolt, founded in 2020 by Tushar Choudhary, is a subsidiary of the Kolkata-based Himadri Group of companies that manufactures specialty chemicals. Two years ago, it launched e-cycles which have a pan-Indian presence and are available in four models- HUM, KIVO Easy, KIVO Standard and ICE.
The intention behind launching the e-cycles and now the e-bikes is to change the way how India moves, Choudhary added.
He added that after travelling to China for many years, he realized that there was a major gap in the country in the micro-mobility segment and this led him to launch Motovolt’s e-cycles and now e-bikes. “We identified the market gap when it comes to aspirational, comfortable, and stylish individual urban commute. With URBN e-bike’s launch, we have created the perfect solution for our users,” he said.
The e-bikes are an advanced version of the e-cycles, he revealed.
He also said that the e-bikes are priced in a way that they not just cater to the urban market. When asked who is going to be the target audience for URBN e-bikes, he said, “Every Indian as it is a brand for the masses” and added “Our distribution strategy is spread all across India.”
In a bid to reach out to the rural market of the country, URBN has partnered with Common Service Centers (CSC), which falls under the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
Additionally, to help customers, specifically in the rural areas, deal with issues around their e-bikes, Raja Kishore, COO at CSC Grameen e-store, said they will develop a Do-it-Yourself (DIY) kit and also help via video conferencing.
The company’s manufacturing set up is in Kolkata and the capacity is 40,000 units per month which he gradually plans to increase depending on the demand of these products.
The Kolkata-based company’s founder mentioned that they have received an advance booking of around 5,000 e-bikes and are also getting queries from delivery start-ups such as Zomato, Swiggy, Zypp Electric, and more.