E-Cycles or E-Scootors

Both e-cycles & e-scooters/e-motorcycles with speed below 25kmph and around 250V motor are automatically exempted from requiring ARAI approval. This is the biggest advantage of these category of bikes and they do not need any license, insurance or permits to ride. This cuts out a lot of red tape.

This is the best sector for Startups to enter this sector. This sector is also great for the customer as he does not need licence, insurance or any kind of permits and this is very easy to handle bike for running errands  baji or routine shopping or even picking up kids from schools. As there is enough income for the manufacturers that this sector has the most boringly designed cycles, scooters and motorcycles.

Doodwala cycle… at least they had bigger wheels 😦

Most manufacturers say they are making the… vehicles of the lifetime themselves but it is visible from the frames that they keep buying frames from one company, motor & controller from another company and battery from a 3rd company. Then they assemble it all and yes they paint it in their own colour…. to such an extent that it looks exactly like the doodwala’s cycle… minus the wheel guard… hang two milk cans on the carrier… and the cycle stand… lo there you have the milkman’s cycle.

Whether these companies do R&D or not…. they can at least make better kind of cycles at least something like the beach cycles or desert cycles with wider tyres… and different frames… a little variety would do fine. How about making a trike your honor? But right now they are happy to fool people and pocket the easy money. India and China is such large and big country that these bike makers can enjoy profits for decades making such silly cycles. Just remember how boring our motocycle scene was 20 yrs back?…which was exactly the same for some 50 yrs before it.

Tata, Mahindra, Bajaj, Dalmias, Wadias, Kirloskar etc benefited from being contractors/agents/workers/pileons for British Raj and their lazy and boring legacy continues to this day. Most of them are usually busy in betting their black money in horse racing…  or relaxing on golf courses. How else… how else… how else… could Reliance a start-from-scratch company led by a single person find the zeal and innovativeness that the rest of the companies combined could never match to become the biggest company in India within 25yrs while the other companies were in existance for around 300yrs!!! All these companies come together to shout “Reliance cheated”… but so did they… even Indian Express… the paper that Goenka led was caught by CBI with press machinery in excess of what they had been sanctioned to use….the very same complaint and problem that they had with Reliance.

Sons and Grandsons do not have the vision and drive which the founders have and there is a distinct limit the these people can take their forefather’s business to. Just like Mukesh and Anil do not have that magic and vision and zeal that Dhirubhai had.

Doodwala e-cycle without the milk cans… and smaller wheel and funny mudguards and the rest of the items from China!!!

Coming back to the topic…the disadvantage of Li-Ion has always been its price… with zero range advantage…. and loosing whatever advantage it had with the speed or pickup as its negligable for a 25kmph and 250v motor vehicle. But if the electric cycle is going to cost Rs 30,000 then it is too expensive. The price just doesn’t justify the product. For example there is Rs 30,000 Lead Acid battery scooters from Hero Motors with 2 yrs battery warranty and 70km range available to be purchased by Paytm. To say that Li-Ion battery last for double the life of LA battery and is better technology just doesn’t wash… if a technology doesn’t have price advantage it has NO benefits at least to the customer! Moreover Lead Acid battery can be manufactured a little differently to last 5yrs too!!!

Now compare the doodwala e-cycle to the above type of electric cycles that the world build. Note each have a different frame, tyre-width and posture (feeling nauseated with the kind of rampant copy paste existing in Indian market to make quick money).

Another disadvantage of electric cycles are that they are theft prone. One its light enough to just pick up put in a tempo and move on. Two… the locks are easy to break. Three there is so much expensive accessories on the bike like controllers, battery, throttle, dashboard/display etc for it to be left at a Railway Station or on the street while you go somewhere. The robbers do not even have to take your bike… they just have to flick one of the accessories and you could be in trouble and loose quite an amount. I had 2 cycles robbed from my house and one within 2 minutes it took me to go inside and comeback. Even through the painful period of the cycle I had people take away the bell and even the rear mirrors which I had painfully installed for safety reasons. Finally I bought a rusted old cycle which the robber obviously didn’t want. That one lasted me quite a few years and had fond memory while it lasted.

If you buy such an e-cycle its better to take it inside your house when not in use. Dont leave it outside EVER!

WHAT SHIT? How can the cost of an e-cycle be equal to an e-scooter???!!??                          Rs 30,000???

It is always advisable to such cycle/scooters/motorcycle manufacturers to go a step further into the low speed (25kmph) electric motorcycle/scooter sector where the most of the advantages and profits are…. and where the red tape is the least.

Actually this is the ONLY sector in motor vehicles where the money can be accepted online and the vehicle home delivered in ANY CITY IN INDIA!!!!. Wonder why Hero Motors is asking to pay online and collect from dealer??!!?? In such a case its not a online sale at all!!!

This was the sector that sold above 100,000 escooters earlier and Hero Motors have admitted that this sector have picked up sales once again when Indian battery was assured instead of Chinese battery.

If at all they are going to stay in the cycle scene they might as well start making the frames themselves to give the brand a identity and uniqueness and increase tyre “widths” for ride quality & swank-n-swagger effect. Right now all the cycles look same boring triangular frame.

Ather Energy too was urged to follow this but they preferred to play to the high speed sector! Tork Energy too is going the high speed sector…This leaves the low speed sector wide open for newbie engineers to explore.

Job-cuts: In the next 10 yrs most of the engineers will be faced with a lot of job cuts as their positions will become redundant with the use of robots, 3d printers and Artificial Intelligence. Therefore only those engineers who can think of making their own product will become relevant. Creating low speed electric vehicles at home/garage is one great option to create opportunity. But such vehicles do not need to be just 2 wheelers, they can consist of any vehicle that can power any farm machinery or power tool.