Nearly a fortnight ago, Warivo Motor, a Jaipur-based electric vehicle startup, launched their latest range of premium e-scooters called the Falcon Ace. With a top speed of 60 kmph and battery range extending from 75 to 80 km on a single charge, this e-scooter is equipped with reverse gear, a Bluetooth speaker, port for mobile phone charging and double disc brakes.
“Development on this e-scooter began a couple of months back. Customers have the option of choosing to install a lead acid battery or a lithium-ion battery in their e-scooter, depending on how much they can afford. The 60V 28 AH lead acid battery version of the Falcon Ace would cost customers Rs 56,500 (ex-showroom), while the 60V 30 AH lithium ion battery-equipped e-scooter would cost Rs 76,000 (ex-showroom). The scooter has reverse gear features, mobile phone charging capacity, bluetooth connectivity, tubeless tyres and anti-theft alarm features as well,” says Anurag Nathawat, CEO, Sales and Marketing, speaking to The Better India.
This isn’t the company’s first rodeo in the electric vehicle segment. Prior to launching the Falcon Ace, it was selling seven models of predominantly low-speed electric scooters.
“Most come with a top speed up to 25 kmph to 40 kmph. The law states that a motor vehicle having less than 250 watts of power and traveling at a speed less than 25 kmph is exempt from requirements like a driver’s license. Our e-scooters have exemption certificates from Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) to this effect. Therefore, most of our e-scooters don’t fall under the jurisdiction of any Road Transport Authority. All our e-scooters are equipped with reverse gear features and in-built mobile phone chargers,” says Anurag.
These low-speed e-scooters are equipped with both lead acid (12 V 62 Ah) and lithium ion (60V 40 Ah) batteries. While the former offers 500 charge cycles, the latter comes with 1500. The startup claims that their batteries come with “zero maintenance cost” with a one-year warranty in lead acid and a three-year warranty in lithium-ion batteries.
Their batteries take anywhere between five to eight hours to attain full charge and utilise over one unit of electricity, which is approximately Rs 10, claims the startup.
For this line of e-scooters, the company’s target audience is senior citizens and young teenagers travelling to their educational institutions, and not for those between the age group of 25 to 35, who are looking for better speeds and premium features.
“With our new premium model, we wanted to offer our customers better speeds, battery range and improved design, greater sturdiness with quality suspensions and a holistic driving experience. These were the major requirements when launching this new e-scooter model. Moreover, like all successful ventures, it’s imperative that we also evolve with the times. This helps with customer retention. With the Falcon Ace, we wanted to expand our customer base. Today, our market is predominantly in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. At this moment, we have about 32 dealerships across Rajasthan alone and are looking to expand into Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh markets,” says Aditya Joshi, the regional sales manager, speaking to The Better India.
With an assembling unit in Ellenabad in Sirsa district, Haryana, the Jaipur-based startup sources some of their components from India, while things like battery cells are imported from countries like Germany and China.
Established in 2018 by brothers Sanjay and Ravi Garg, the company sold about 2,200 e-scooters in the last financial year. It’s a bootstrapped venture that isn’t seeking funding from venture capitalists and other investors.
Both brothers have over 25 years of experience in the automobile industry. Aside from the startup, they run dealerships across Rajasthan selling two-wheelers from TVS Motors and operate a small micro-finance company as well. However, things began to change sometime in 2016 when the brothers saw the changing contours of the automobile industry.
With a growing public demand and increased government support for the EVs, the brothers changed track and ventured into manufacturing e-scooters.
“The next step is to manufacture high-speed electric vehicles with faster charge times and our promoters are already looking to expand their manufacturing capacity in the coming months,” says Anurag.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
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