For the second part of our Vahan show, an exclusive show in our blog in which we give video reviews of cars, bikes and interviews with famous auto personalities. In this show, we chatted with Mr. Abhijit Bose, General Manager (Business development) of Induselectrans. In the chat, he spoke about IndusElectrans and their products and shared his thoughts on the potential for Electric vehicles in India and clarified some common issues/misconceptions which lives among the people about the ebikes – on its mileage, charging and service. The 13 min long video is available in 3 parts but unfortunately audio quality is little bit poor due to the external noises. For the convenience of our readers, we provide the text transcripts of the entire 3 parts of the videos below the post. Watch the interview and as usual do share your comments.
Abhijit: thanks
Vahan: Could you tell us a little about Induselectrans
Abhijit: IndusElectrans is a division of Electrotherm India. Electrotherm is a public listed company with a turnover of Rs. 760crores. Electrotherm used to make and still now we are the leader. We have gained core competence in electronics and electrical technology. Over a period of time, we have given a thought, how to come up with a new kind of product which is related to our competence as well as it ease out the problem of mass consumption. We looked at hybrid/electric bus which is still on our R&D and we looking at commercialization in a year or two. Later we looked at two-wheeler market very closely, we seen the international market and in Europe & America there are lot of demand for these kind of two-wheeler vehicles. Incidentally in china there is huge market for these vehicles. But when we looked at the vehicles running in southeast asia these are not suitable for India, we have to indigenise, re-engineer, re-design and re-specify the complete components. We did so, after 5 years of intensive research we came out with first six models – yo smart, yo spin – 250W models and then yo trust, yo trend, yo teen and yo tuff – cycle models. We used to call them as B-size models and smart and spin are called as A-size models. We have sold around 30,000 ebikes mostly yo smart in the financial year of 2006-2007. While walking on yo spin and yo smart, we have appointed across the country of 200 dealers and sub-dealers, we found that there are lot of requirement for high speed vehicle because yo smart and yo spin can reach maximum speed of only 25km/hr, so we lost lot of customers and real customers for the yo smart & yo spin are housewives, school children, retired people and self employed people like LIC agents. But we couldn’t get a walking men with our size of bikes. We decided to launch a new product called yo speed 750W i.e with a 750 Watts very powerful motor and backed up by much more powerful battery of Ampere-Hour of 33 to ensure that 750W motor can take care of 2 people and deliver a high speed of 45km/hr. Currently, we are working on auto rickshaws and on various other transportations systems. As of now, we are having 7 products with 70% market share at all india level.
Vahan: How much did you see the potential for ebikes in Indian two-wheeler market, when you brought the bikes here
Abhijit: The potential is very huge, so far licensed and registration version of fuel vehicles are used by walking men and walking women and other categories who does not qualify for license are restricted to bicycles. So we have created a new segment by bringing yo smart and yo spin into the market.If you look at electrical vehicle as a category, probably in india this is only the 2nd time someone has built a new category, before that, i think… only kellogg’s created a category for make first indians. We created a category and we redefined the usage of a two-wheeler which is running on alternative energy. It takes time to settle on, for this kind of concept as there are lots of apprehension initially found with the customers. But over a period of time, last two years we are in the market and we are the first company with a national reach and we found that those apprehensions are now wading out because of , initially there are apprehension such as how long the battery will last? what will happen if there is a rain? whether it can pass through a water logged streets? those apprehensions are gone..as these are time tested and we sold huge volumes and as there 11/2 year old vehicle.
If you look at industry as whole, automobile industry is walking on three things – cash purchase, financing and exchange. if you look at cash purchase it is easier you are selling these ebikes at Rs30000 and people are buying it. But when a financier comes, GE and ICICI have both joined hands with us, obviously there is some importance to these as a category. They have financed the product the like yo smart in a unprecedented way. So obviously they have done extensive research on whether this category will go or not, obviously they have seen our growth month-on-month and infact they have given lot of inputs to us also as they have gone for financing the customers. The customer profile is very important for you to be called as good customer bike.
Vahan: How much volumes you expect in next few years?
Abhijit: Over a period of time. we expect around market to mature to 10 – 15 lakh but we can be there as a market leader with a 40% market share
Vahan: in another 2 to 3 years…
Abhijit: it will take another five years
Vahan: When people think about ebikes suddenly china! pop-up in their mind. How do you ensure the quality and availability of spare parts?
Abhijit: yes we are importing some parts from china, but we have a satellite plant in china, it is our company. So we are manufacturing, we are controlling the quality, we specify those and we have put the best experts, so it is not actually importing from china, through these we cut down cost that is passed on to the customer. That’s it.
Vahan: like scrutinizing..
Abhijit: it is ours company providing good back-end and we have good competence in electrical technology so we understand things better. Also ,we have re-engineered the whole thing, we have re-engineered the complete design,we re-engineered the complete design and we re-specify the battery. Also, we have found that the vendors are not that strong and so we made our own charger, own controller ..everything ..thats the thing the indigenisation we have to do. We have to build our vendors over a period of time initially they are struggling but we have to build in a period of 6-7 months. Today dunlop is supplying the tyres.
Vahan: but considering the price, ebikes are priced almost equivalent to their petrol peers
Abhijit: yes, but you have look at the economy, you will get your money back in three years time.
Vahan: What is the mileage of your products?
Abhijit: a single rider of with this kind of bike you can go up to 70kms, a dozen ride up to 50km in a single charge. How much we travel everyday, on an average we won’t travel more than that except for some people who travel 70/80km a day.
Vahan: We have received lot of enquiries on who need registration and license to ride an ebike, could you throw some light on regulations..
Abhijit: The motor vehicle act called CMVR that specifies bikes with less than 25km/hr of maximum speed and produces less than 250W won’t require license. So yo speed 750W is a fully registered vehicle.
Vahan: How about the charging of the vehicle. is it only plug-in type?
Abhijit: yes, just like your mobile charger
Vahan: But, what about people living in 2nd or 3rd floor using the ebikes
Abhijit: We also initially apprehended that would be some problem, but we found that people in gujurat or in delhi or in hyderabad everyone made their own charging point, when you start saving money you also start looking finding solutions. That’s not an issue
Vahan: Another question pops up in everyone mind while looking for ebikes is, what is the life of the battery, how much you have to spend for replacing the battery
Abhijit: For bikes like yo speed, we are providing 1 yr warrantee for the whole vehicle which includes battery. For lead acid batteries the life is not more than 21/2 years and then you have to put another battery. Even then, the cost of running a ebike is 1/8th of a petrol vehicle. Since you have to spend for maintenance but in ebikes there is no need. Because you have only four fundamental parts here – battery,motor and charger. The only mechanical part is the brake, that’s the advantage of an ebike. Then the service, customers can get back the vehicle whether it is first or second or third check which are free roughly in one hour.
Vahan: What about warranty for other products?
Abhijit: For yo smart vehicle warranty is for one year and the battery warranty is up to six months.
Vahan: Do you have any plans to introduce lithium ion batteries which have superior life than existing lead acid batteries?
Abhijit: Lithium ion batteries may come in future but its has to be mass scale commercialization otherwise customers will not be able to pay for it. Also lithium ion is a recent technology but it is costlier but i’m sure that it will come in future.
Vahan: Following you, recently many auto majors have forayed into the segment. TVS has announced an electric vehicle also hero group has entered in a mass manner with ultra motors. How much you expect competition in this segment in the future? What is your plan to tackle this competition.
Abhijit: see.. we are the first mover, we have taken out products across India and to win the competition, that’s giving us a tremendous advantage. Plus we are coming out with more products. Also we have created a powerful brand called yo bykes and it has become generic. Today. everyone is talking about yo bykes and then we are looking better service through our channel partners and to bring different kind of products to differentiate ourself better.