An e-bike that shuts down if EMIs are unpaid

The mobility world has now reached a level where automobiles can be disabled remotely in case their owners failed to repay the loan taken to buy them.

EV startup Revolt Motors, which is now owned by RattanIndia Enterprises, has developed a technology which allows it to remotely shutdown electric bikes whose owners have stopped paying the equated monthly instalments (EMIs).

A chip installed in the electric bikes, sold under the Revolt RV series, allows for a complete shutdown of the vehicle through a computer. Such an operation, where the vehicle maker has complete mobility control over a retailed vehicle, has never been undertaken in India before.

Also Read

Tata Motors only Indian EV maker in ICCT’s global automaker rating 2022, Tesla and BYD top charts

FAME2 revision: Does the Indian EV industry need subsidies and the way forward

FAME 2 subsidy on electric vehicles could be slashed to Rs 10,000 per KW, max cap at 15% of vehicle cost

Epsilon Advanced Materials partners Japan’s KRI, will invest Rs 300 crore to establish Advanced Tech Centre in India

A non-banking finance company (NBFC) of RattanIndia has been financing Revolt bikes for the past four years. A tracking chip is fitted inside those bikes which are bought on loan. If the chip is forcibly removed, the bike then will shutdown on its own. The company claims that the innovative feature has kept delinquency rates to almost zero.

After buying out Revolt fully a few months ago, RattanIndia has firmed up plans to pump in investments into the company that will take care of its future product line-up. The company wants to use the feature of remotely shutting down the vehicle in all of the future models also.

Anjali Rattan, business chairperson, RattanIndia Enterprises, said: “Four years ago, finance companies were unwilling to give loans to customers. Our group NBFC made an EMI plan for Revolt, and it worked well. A customer can pay as little as ₹5,715 can walk out with the bike with the balance to be paid in monthly payments. Revolt bikes are based on AI and technologically very advanced with remote bike disablement capabilities for delinquent customers.”  The Revolt bikes can be totally operated using a mobile phone or voice-based commands. It can lock, unlock, start, stop, locate the bike, set up a geo-fence, display battery status and run diagnostics all using the mobile phone.

Revolt has a plant in Manesar, Haryana, having a manufacturing capacity of 120,000 units per annum. RattanIndia is scouting for land to set up a second plant which would take the total capacity to 2 million units a year.

“Currently, we have a capacity of 120,000 bikes per annum. Eventually, the target for production capacity is 20 lakh bikes per annum. At present, I am focused on delivering Revolt bikes to customers. As the numbers scale up, we will ensure adequate equity is available to Revolt at the right time,” Rattan added.

After acquiring the initial 34% stake in 2021, RattanIndia, in early 2023, bought out the remaining stake in Revolt from its founder Rahul Sharma, who had also founded handset maker Micromax.

Revolt has 35 dealerships presently and aims to take the count to 70 in due course. During the period April to December, Revolt clocked volumes of 10,919 units, which was double when compared to 5277 units sold in the same period previous year.