The board agreed to "go slow" on the domestic commercial launch of the 550 cc petrol engine micro car. Joint managing director Sulajja Firodia Motwani said the company would go in first for an electric car, even as it continued efforts at convincing the centre to reduce the excise duty on the micro car.

Kinetic Engineering had pinned its hopes on an excise-duty reduction, which would allow the company to maintain its "committed" price of Rs 1.25 lakh.Since the duty reduction has not yet come through, it has begun exploring the option of an electic car. KineticEngineering is in talks with an overseas organisation for collaboration on this project, and expects to have its own feasibility report ready in a month's time.

Motwani was confident that an electric car could be commercially launched by March 1999, a few months behind the scheduled launch of the petrol version. This would be possible since the vendor development, among other things, is in place.

The proposed electric car would have a range of 60-70 kms, and then would ave to be recharged, making it viable for urban commuters, executive director (operations) MK Khera said.

Kinetic Engineering will launch several new two-wheeler models before December 1998, including a 60 cc kick-start Luna, a 73 cc self-start scooterette and a rural version of the K4-100, its first vehicle in the motorcycle segment. Its first motorcycle, a 110 cc four-stroke bike, is expected to roll out of the Koregaon Bhima plant by June 1999.