Waiting for electric scooters in India? Here are some options to choose from

• Okinawa Scooters has become the first electric two-wheeler company to get the Fame-II approval and incentivization.
• The Okinawa scooters start at a price range of ₹45,000 and go upto ₹1,46,000.
• With the approval, customers could get subsidies between ₹17,000–₹26,000 based on kwh.

India’s polluted air badly needs electric vehicles and a bunch of brands are nearing their launch.

The latest one is from the startup Okinawa Scooters, which has become the first electric two-wheeler company to get the Fame-II approval and incentivization. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme was announced by the Indian government in 2015 to push forward the production and use of electric vehicles.

With their inclusion in the Fame scheme, consumers will get a subsidy in the purchase of Okinawa scooters, depending on the model battery kilowatt hour. The Okinawa scooters start at a price range of ₹45,000 and go upto ₹1,46,000. “For Okinawa Ridge+ & i-Praise the subsidy would be between ₹17,000–₹26,000 based on kwh,” said Jeetender Sharma, Founder & Managing Director, Okinawa Autotech Pvt. Ltd.

India has seen growth of many EV startups who are manufacturing bikes in India. Okinawa also faces competition from other Indian startups like Ather Energy.

Ather Energy’s bikes start at a price range of ₹1,13,000 and it has raised funding from the likes of Hero Motocorp. Pune-based Tork Motors which was one of the first in India to announce electric motorcycles is set to launch the motorbikes soon with an expected price range of ₹1.5 lakh.

Another rising competition in the space comes from Revolt Motors, which has been founded by Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma. Revolt will be launching AI-powered electric bikes in India by June 2019. Rumours suggest that the bike, which will be initially launched in Delhi NCR, could be priced between ₹1-1.20 lakh.

“With the thought process to provide the consumer with the ‘Make in India’ product we started working initially on localization of our electric two-wheeler components which helped us in getting the FAME-II approval,” said Sharma.

The company’s official statement said that their products have met all the government parameters that help in availing subsidy – a speed of around 40 kilometres (km) per hour, a range of about 80 km/charge, sourcing 50% of the inputs from within India and using Lithium-ion battery.

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