Technical competence, indigenization and a service-oriented approach characterize the electric two-wheelers’ market. It’s time we acknowledge the significance of these attributes - differentiating factors that set apart the real from the ‘nearly-real’
Market is never saturated with a good product but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one
— Henry Ford
In older times when sugarcane was a big success in Indian agriculture, a lot of sugar mills had mushroomed to buy the produce. Every farmer was busy cultivating sugarcane to make a quick buck. As a result of which other crops were neglected and there was so much sugarcane that prices nose dived and the farmer could not even
break-even. Leave aside the race to make money; the survival of the farmers was at stake. The market was spoiled.
Every new category in India is first seen with a doubt, then it attracts interest of a lot of people and very quickly it becomes a breeding ground for spoilers who not only bring bad name to the category but also shake the faith of the consumer. Electric vehicles are one such case. Electric vehicles in general and electric two-wheelers in particular, were looked with some doubt to begin with. Having made a small but firm base, they are now attracting a lot of people (read manufacturers). Numerous small electric vehicle manufacturers (read traders) have jumped in without having an adequate manufacturing or service back up - that is so critical for such a complex product which requires 'handling with care' attitude. It is their casual and reckless approach towards this critical category which is alarming and should be addressed strongly.
They must realize that at the end of the day, electric vehicle is an automobile. It is a moving product which by definition is prone to use & abuse as per individual habits. One needs to have technical competence to gaze all possible usage patterns and develop a product that lasts them all. And if that is not possible fully, educate the consumer about the right use, service them well and keep them satisfied.
Above all, one needs to have commitment, drive and passion towards this category. One has to be in it for a long haul. This has been true for conventional petrol driven automobiles as well where only serious players who worked hard initially, made huge investments in the technology, team and competency have survived and flourished.
So what we see everyday is the entrance of two new players, while more than two shut shop. This is bound to happen and a lot of companies have already closed. One can look at this phenomenon positively and say that only competitive players will survive and fly-by-night operators will move out. But that is not the point. The point is that they are shaking consumer's confidence with every closure which is bad for the category. This is a more serious issue and a larger forum has to be created to address it. There are two critical aspects to this, one is technological competence that is largely the manufacturers responsibility and the other is the right ecosystem for these vehicles, which is a collective responsibility of all the interest groups. We will look at both of them one by one.
At a technological level electric two-wheelers are totally different from the conventional petrol twowheelers but are in no means simpler than them. In petrol two-wheelers the complexity lies in the engine and fuel is common to all of them whereas in electric two-wheelers the real complexity lies in the battery which is the fuel of the vehicle and motor is common to all. Petrol by nature has more power to deliver and the engine can sustain the load to a greater extent (the margin of error in terms of payload is large). In an electric two-wheeler the power comes from the battery which can not match the power of petrol and the motor, which is the engine of such vehicles, has lower power in terms of payload and speed. Therefore a right balance of battery and motor makes this technology much more complex.
We can club various electric vehicle manufactures on the basis of their current activities and future action plans; and there are three such groups as per my understanding. First group comprises of players, whom I call as traders; they are simply importing the CKDs and dumping the assembled vehicles in the market. They do not provide any service support and once there stock is depleted, these players tend to wind up their establishment and customer is left in the lurch to struggle with his vehicle. The second group is of those players, who have basic manufacturing setup, and a few service centers to provide spares / service support. These I call as the small manufacturers. The third group is of those manufacturers who have vision of the future and have invested in building the competence and infrastructure to develop, manufacture, sell and support the electric vehicles required for Indian roads. There are a few companies in the third group while the market is flooded with traders. Much higher specifications / performance electric vehicles suitable for Indian road conditions will have to be developed for electric vehicles to have a substantial presence in the market. Companies which invest heavily in manufacturing setup, indigenization and basic technology platform, like battery, motor, controller, etc are the companies which are going to survive in the long run.
The electric two-wheelers are a major success in China which is the leader in the electric two-wheelers category and it manufactures more than 90% of the total electric twowheelers produced in the world. This is due to the fact that China as a nation is upgrading from a cycle to electric two-wheelers. A lot of electric vehicles available in China are the basic 250W motor vehicles and expectation of people there is not very high. Secondly, in China brands do not exist in this category which is not the case with the Indian market. Hence, the Chinese example is the inspiration but is not the correct model to follow because of all these differences. The interest groups, including the government must realize this. A minimum quality benchmark has to be adhered to strictly like ISI or ARAI, as is in our case.
India is a two-wheeler country and Indian consumer is very demanding. In India a two-wheeler is seen as a family vehicle where husband is the rider; mother the pillion with younger child in her lap and an elder son standing in front. Although the electric two-wheelers are a new mode of transportation with their payload limitations but the expectation of an Indian consumer remains the same. This brings us to the next level of technical competence - optimizing existing technology to produce vehicles that satisfy consumer expectations. One can count such companies on fingers who are capable of delivering this. The more critical thing is that a certain minimum base has to be there for companies to invest more. That base is under threat if there is little consumer confidence. This is the second aspect "proper ecosystem" that I mentioned earlier. An automobile is not like any other consumer durable product which can work in isolation. Various other systems are required to be in place for automobile category to flourish
Apart from the technological complexities there are lots of infrastructural nuances that need to be looked at as far as electric twowheelers are concerned. The ease of charging an electric vehicle must be there on the same lines as there are petrol refueling stations. Service is the backbone of a successful automobile company. A strong service network is required to be in place to attend to the vehicles that are sold as maintenance is part that cannot be neglected. Since, it is a new technology, a lot of training is required for developing sound service network across the country. A huge service network is only developed when the organization has the vision, dedication, manpower and money to support it.
Developing this kind of ecosystem requires a lot of investment and commitment, something that is not seen from a lot of players today. It is unfair for the category of such a tremendous global relevance to not get adequate support system. The government needs to intervene and provide support to those companies who are working in this direction.
The value proposition that electric vehicles have to offer is tremendous. On one hand it saves the money which in other case would be spent on petrol, and on the other hand it prevents environment from the vehicular pollution. In a life of a typical Indian middle class consumer, the petrol expense eats away almost 10% of his monthly salary. The electric vehicles give freedom from the clutches of petrol and provide the individual with that extra sum of money as savings which he can invest, save or spend to make his life better.
The world today talks about the global warming and the climate change and to which vehicular pollution is a major contributor. These electric vehicles are zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) which not only prevent the environment from the aftermaths of the pollution but also make the earth a better place to live.
The role of government and regulatory authorities cannot be denied in building of this category. The current rules and regulation should be made stringent enough to prevent the mushrooming of players which dent the confidence of the customer in electric two-wheelers category. The big and influential players should unite and urge the government to support the electric vehicles which are the vehicles not only of future but even of today.
Burgeoning fuel prices, better fuel efficiencies, lower maintenance costs etc are foremost concern areas for an average Indian in today's context. With governments promoting mass transport as an answer to the global fuel price hikes, certain enterprising corporates have taken the initiative to provide electric battery run vehicles as an alternative. Electrotherm (I) Ltd, manufacturers of YObykes in India, have been pioneering this concept of electric vehicles, backed with a strong R&D and technological support. This issue of the Trailblazer series attempts to highlight some basic thoughts on this sector.
Mukesh Bhandari Chairman & CTO, Electrotherm (I) Ltd
An Electronics Engineer who has been researching on electric vehicles for more than two decades
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