Its not known to many that Lohia Auto, way back in 2009, introduced the first electric two-wheeler vehicle in India. Yes, that early. Ayush Lohia, the CEO of Lohia Auto, says that they have been focussing more on electric three-wheelers. This is because a few years ago, through their findings, the company found out that three-wheelers is a more lucrative business than two- as the market for the latter was still unstable. There was an uncertainty on how the market will react and how things will pan out in the longer run. On one side there were primitive products that were low speed in nature and used to run on lead acid batteries. The other end had premium products like the Ather 450. In short, Lohia Auto was observing the industry and how the price-sensitive customer will behave. Now, the company is very certain about which products to launch in the market. Ayush credits learnings from the very versatile and stable e-rickshaws for this.
The most interesting aspect of Lohia’s plans is that an electric sportsbike too is under consideration. Something with more than 200km range and a higher top speed as well. Ayush though feels that there still isn’t enough awareness on how to handle such vehicles by the Indian public and plus there are no roads. Torque is available right from the word go in an electric vehicle and a top-spec motorcycle will also be tuned in a similar fashion. So, right now, the feasibility study is being conducted on the same.
On being asked which other new electric two-wheeler products we can expect from the company, Ayush admits that the current Oma range of two-wheelers is outdated. However, after having studied the market extensively, one can now expect a newness in the Oma range in the next 7-8 months. So, an update is on the cards for these scooters – higher range, much more efficiency and technology-driven. Ayush hopes to rope in more e-commerce websites and last mile connectivity operators into the fold. In short, the next two years, Lohia Auto will have a range of new products in the market – three- as well as two-wheelers. More often than not, there will be a complete redesign of the products too. These will be even done in-house. As it is, more than 99.99 per cent of three-wheelers from Lohia Auto are localised and in the coming financial year, Ayush believes they can achieve 100 per cent. In terms of two-wheelers, only components like few plastic parts remain to be localised. Currently, assembling the battery pack in India is considered as Make-in-India.
In the upcoming budget, Ayush expects the government to ensure that they instruct the retail banks to provide finance for electric vehicles, perhaps at a lower rate than ICE units. Moreover, he wants the government to refund the GST from whatever components the auto companies are currently purchasing. Ayush expects the electric two-wheeler industry to boom in the near future. Somewhere wherein they make an impact and come all guns blazing!