Rahul Sharma, the co-founder of homegrown mobile phone company Micromax, is stepping into the electric two-wheeler business. The venture which will not have the Micromax brand to its name, will be Sharma's own in his individual capacity.
The electric vehicles sector is seeing some activity after the government issued some policy statements giving incentives to those who manufacture and sell these pollution-free vehicles and those who intend to buy them. A major in the two-wheeler segment, Hero Motors and a startup Ather Motors are already in the fray. But it may be too early to conclude if either of them has had any reportable success in their ventures. The customer preference appears to be to still tilted towards the conventional motorcycles.
But Micromax has a reputation of having been a disruptive force in the consumer market, though the company has not been able to hold its own with the onslaught of the Chinese phone makers. The experience in the mobile phone market can come in handy when Rahul Sharma launches his electric motorcycles in June this year. The exact brand name and all other details are yet to be shared by the company. The only details disclosed are that the venture will import key components like the batteries and motors. However, the controller units may be indigenously made. The company has appointed a 45-member R&D team to work on the designs as well as to make an assessment of the market in the country.
Rahul Sharma claims he has earmarked an investment of Rs 500 crore for this project and a site measuring 100,000 square feet has been identified outside of Gurugram to locate the manufacturing facility.
The electric motorcycles may be sold online with the vehicles being home-delivered. The conventional franchise route could be adopted as well.