Scooters and Road Safety

Two New Scooter Race into the Market

The two wheeled scooter industry in India is one of the fasting growing in the country. In the past 3 years many companies have either chosen to focus on producing electric scooters or have added them to their catalog.

Hi Bird is one of the leading bicycle makers in India, and is now expanding their product line into the electric scooter industry. The company whose bicycles are popular in Europe and USA, have launched two models of electric scooters this week. A single charge on either scooter can them going for 70 kilometers or more. In addition they are designed for easy recharging in virtually any location where there is an electric socket.

According to the company, however, both the scooters can easily hit 100km and can also be charged at any electrical plug point. Both the e-scooters are fitted with lithium-ion batteries, in stead of the nickel-cadmium or lead-acid batteries that other company's rely on.

Contrary to the common battery system of the automobile utilizing nickel-cadmium or lead-acid batteries, these models are relying on the lithium-ion batteries. They provide convenient recharging and tend to weigh about 40% less than the lead-acid batteries. 

These scooters are powerful enough to carry one adult and one child. This is a strong message for eco-friendly products around the world. By being virtually void of air, noise and liquid pollution, they are extremely durable with the ability to handle loads equivilent to what people have become used to with their gas guzzling models over the past decades. 

The company took this ambitious venture for introducing battery operated scooters at a reasonable price to satisfy the India's sizeable middle class. There is an increasing demand for e-scooters in India, which can be easily driven by senior citizens, professionals, working women and youngsters. The models are priced between Rs.27,000 to Rs.28,900.

To further the advancement of electric scooter purchases, the government of India has applied several subsidies for those on limited wages. . The state of Chandigarh and Delhi offers a subsidy of 20% excluding the 15% rebate offered by the central government on electric scooters.  The current leader in the electric two wheeler segment in India is Hero Electric with a market share of above 30%, and with sales of 80,000 two wheelers every year.  But they hope to double that number in the next year and it looks like they are on track to do just that.