Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma’s new electric two-wheeler startup Revolt Intellicorp has launched two electric motorcycles with what the it calls the first plan in India that offers motorcycle-as-a-service. This plan claims to address the challenge of the high cost that is usually associated with electric vehicles which have performance comparable to that of conventional vehicles. The RV300, which is the company’s entry-level offering, will be available at a monthly charge of Rs 2,999, while the RV400 will come with two plans – Rs 3,499 per month and Rs 3,999 per month.
The fully-electric motorcycles come with features like mobile app connectivity and removable batteries. The nearly identical motorcycles differ in power output, the RV400 is equipped with a 3kW, while RV300 gets a 1.5kW hub-mounted motor. They will be first available in Delhi and will soon be made available in Pune. Sharma said, “There is no upfront price to the product. You pay me a small amount on a monthly basis. There is no down-payment, there is no maintenance cost, no insurance cost. Everything is included. We call this model MRP – My Revolt Plan. EV is a new industry. The product has to be new and even the way we sell it has to be new.”
“I am not asking for a commitment of a lakh rupees. I am saying, you just give me a very small amount, keep paying me for three years, and the bike is yours,” said Sharma. The bike is yours from day-1. It is not leased, it is not a rental. Everybody in this country will be able to afford this bike, he added. This smart bike will stop working if you don’t pay and will again start working the moment you pay.
“We will repossess the vehicle if the payment is not made for three months. Similar to when one buys a car and doesn’t pay EMI. There will be a window of three months as per the government’s guidelines,” Sharma said. The company has already launched four experience centres in Delhi. They will follow an online plus offline model and the bikes can be booked at Revolt.com and on Amazon. “In two to three years we will cover 60%-70% of the Indian market,” he added.
Revolt bikes can be can be charged in four ways. With a normal wall socket at your home, secondly, the battery is portable, so if the owner lives in an apartment, he can take out the battery and charge it at home overnight, Third, the company is launching several locations in the cities one can go and take a charged battery from a shopkeeper. If you require battery urgently, you can go on the Revolt app and order a charged battery which will be delivered at your doorstep. The bikes are avialable in three modes, in the Economy mode it gives around 150 kms of range, in the City mode, it will give 120 kms of range and in the sports mode, it will give you 80 km to 90 km. The company’s annual capacity is 120,000 bikes, which is as good as the size of the total EV industry in the country.
The popularity of the bikes can be gauged by the fact that the company already has more than 75,000 registrations from people who are looking for a Revolt bike, which is a massive number. “Today I want to buy an electric car for myself but there is no good electric car in the market apart from Hyundai Kona. The same goes for electric motorcycles. I think it was more of a question of manufacturers making the right product than people accepting EVs. If you make the right product, there are plenty of people who will come and buy an EV. This is a window of opportunity to disrupt this industry. There has been no disruption in the Indian auto industry in the last 30 years,” said Sharma.
RV400’s mobile app claims to offer a holistic view of its motorcycle, remotely. The app adapts to the rider’s personal riding behavior guides them for a better riding experience. The app is powered by telematics data collected from the 4G enabled IOT device in the bike and runs analytics at the backend to give relevant insights into the user’s biking trips. It also functions as a gateway to the battery swapping infrastructure by enabling users to find neighboring swap stations with details of accessibility of charged batteries. The other service provides the ease of getting the batteries delivered at the user’s location at a convenient time slot.
