Oben Electric's first electric motorcycle, Rorr, will come equipped with a two-hour charging technology.
This can be achieved using a normal 15A socket found in homes and offices, Madhumita Agrawal, Co-Founder & CEO, Oben Electric told Mobility Outlook.
“We own the intellectual property rights for this and there is no requirement to spend on fast chargers as Rorr will offer this tech as standard,” she added. The motorcycle will come equipped with the charger and “all a consumer needs to do” is plug it into one of the home sockets.
Agrawal said the name Oben is derived from German literature and means top position. Rorr will be launched at a starting price of INR 127,000, and will feature a 200 km IDC range, 0-40 km acceleration in three seconds, and a 4.4 kWh battery pack.
The Indian electric two-wheeler market is projected to achieve volumes of 1,080,000 units by the end of 2025, translating into a CAGR of 57.9% between 2020 and 2025. In 2019, nearly 152,000 electric two-wheelers were sold, 20.6% growth annually from 2014.
17,000 Pre-orders
Oben has reportedly bagged pre-orders of 17,000 Rorr motorcycles and plans to start deliveries in metros first. Beyond Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Surat, Ahmedabad, and Delhi — where the retail network has already been set up — the company is in talks with dealers from 55 more cities.
Agrawal would rather have her startup follow the old school route of setting up brick-and-mortar dealers initially. Rorr has also been targeted for international markets especially in countries that have similar weather conditions to India.
“We have engineered Rorr to perform Indian (weather) conditions and our first international foray will be in regions with tropical temperatures,” she said.
Deliveries of the motorcycle, originally scheduled to start in a few weeks from now, had to be postponed due to the new battery and vehicle norms mandated by the Centre. The co-founders believe that these will help OEMs make safer electric vehicles.
“While our products are already in sync with most of the regulations announced by the Centre, there are still a few areas which we are working upon. These are new for the entire industry and should take another three months to start rolling,” said Agrawal.
Localisation Focus
Oben has designed the Rorr motorcycle in-house which includes designing critical components. The company says it is also making batteries and motors at its facility in Bengaluru Spread across 3.5 acres, this plant can churn out 300,000 vehicles per year.
Oben’s import bill of materials is limited to cells and magnets. “All the critical components are manufactured by us in-house,” she said. Started as a bootstrapped company in 2000, Oben Electric has so far raised $6 million (around INR 50 crore) of which $4 million was generated in November 2022.
“These funds will be used to fulfil existing orders, ramp up capacity and expand our distribution network,” Agrawal had said after the fundraising. The company does not intend to foray into electric scooters or cars and has begun designing its next electric motorcycle.
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