Electric two-wheeler sales have been gaining traction in recent times, with the likes of Ola, TVS Motor and Ather Energy seeing strong sales growth. So far in 2023, over 6.6 lakh electric two-wheelers have been sold, according to the government's Vahan website.
Now a new startup based out of Belagavi in Karnataka is looking to enter the increasingly crowded market. With a claimed range of up to 280km, it hopes the scooter will find many buyers.
Rivot Motors was founded by Ajit Patil, who was earlier working in the software industry. He had bought an electric scooter back in 2009. But it had to be regularly repaired and that eventually gave him the idea to build an electric two-wheeler himself.
"The e-scooter I had bought had so many issues, I had to keep fixing it. This went on for four-five years before it gave up. In 2016, I started seeing lots of things happening around EVs, and by then I had gathered hands-on and theoretical knowledge around electric two-wheelers. After doing more research for around two years, I decided to form a company in 2018," Patil said.
The outcome is this new scooter, Rivot NX100. He says the issues he had faced in the earlier scooter helped him in developing this scooter. The scooter will be available in five variants. The base variant will get a battery pack of 1,920Wh, and will have a claimed range of 100km. Other variants will get bigger battery packs of 3,840Wh and 5,760Wh, with a claimed range of 200km and 280km respectively. Its worth noting that this range hasn't been independently tested and certified yet.
In comparison, the Ola S1 Pro second generation has a certified range of 195km. The Ather 450X with the 3.7 kWh battery pack gets a certified range of around 150km. TVS IQube has a range of 100-145km.
According to Patil, the NX100 will be the first electric scooter in the market, with an upgradable range, wherein someone using the lower variant could just upgrade the battery pack, rather than opt for the higher variant scooter. Further, the scooters will get retractable charging cable within the scooter itself. Also, the scooters will get an auxiliary power unit, which will kick in if the batteries on-board run out of juice and can be handy in emergency situations.
"It will be a last resort battery pack, like a power bank and will have just enough juice to take you home or office," said Patil.
The NX100 scooter was unveiled this week and eager customers can pre-book the scooter for a token amount of Rs 499. Deliveries for the scooter are expected to begin by middle of 2024 and prices will range between Rs 89,000 for the base variant, going up to Rs 1.59 lakh for the top spec variant. The company has identified 30 cities across India where it aims to set up dealerships.
Patil said the scooter has been designed and developed in-house and will be produced at a facility that it has identified in Belagavi. They could also approach contract manufacturers going ahead. The company hopes to produce 10,000 scooters in its first full year.