Bengaluru, India: Indians frequently purchase bikes as the vehicles are both cost effective and give better mileage. However, with regards to bike electric vehicles, value delicate Indian buyers frequently show hesitance. Additionally, the market presents a great deal of difficulties, which go about as hindrances for E2W reception among purchasers.
Some of them incorporate battery substitution cost, restricted reach, charging time, and poor charging foundation. Back in 2018, Suhas Rajkumar, the CEO and Founder of Simple Energy, was hoping to purchase a bike for his family. After carefully examining options, he couldn’t locate the correct EV as there was nothing near what he had in mind and would serve as a good value for money vehicle.
In efforts to address these difficulties, Simple Energy, which was started by Suhas Rajkumar and Shreshth Mishra in 2019, has thought of an electric bike – Mark 2 – which settles for three prime concerns, i.e., range uneasiness, charging time, and affordability.
The organization’s prototype – Mark 1 – as of late accomplished an ARAI (Automotive Research Association of India) endorsement for having a range of more than 230km, with a 4-kilowatt hour battery pack that has been created in-house by Simple Energy. Its lead electric bike Mark 2 is planned to be dispatched in May 2021. The e-bike is relied upon to have a scope of 240+ km, and incorporates highlights like a seven-inch savvy contact dashboard with 24×7 4G-empowered web association, and a charging season of 40 minutes at home, and so forth
The Bengaluru-based startup fabricates electric bikes from zero, beginning right from its surface plan, chassis plan, and battery advancement, to engine improvement. Additionally, the organization assembles exhaustive in-house, Made-in-India items.
The startup came up with this move at a time when, the eventual fate of the auto sector is nailed to electric vehicles. NITI Aayog has suggested that India ought to totally change to EVs by 2030. The Delhi government has likewise as of late dispatched ‘Switch Delhi’ mission to help the selection of electric vehicles in the city to battle the rising air contamination, and in sync with its EV strategy that it reported a year ago.
Suhas and Shreshth, alongside a group of five other individuals, shaped the center group. As a business person, Suhas had prior established a few startups specific to areas of apparel, footwear, and watches. Shreshth Mishra is a civil engineer from BBDNIIT, Lucknow. He has previously worked with cloud kitchen startup – Tiffilo, before he joined Simple Energy.
The remainder of the core group accompanies insight in EV area, mechanical designing, electrical designing, and hardware designing. As of now, the startup has a group of 29 individuals, including the prime supporters.
The normal cost of the Mark 2 e-bike will be between Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,20,000 and the organization intends to dispatch Mark 2 of every three ideal spots – Bengaluru, Chennai, and Delhi in any case, and afterward continuously grow to different urban areas, for example, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.
At first, the organization was bootstrapped with Rs 1.3 crore. As of late, Simple Energy has raised an undisclosed measure of pre-Series A subsidizing from angel investors, including Vel Kanniappan, Thomas George, and others. The startup is further hoping to bring USD 8-10 million up in Series A financing in the second quarter of this current year.
The organization is likewise taking a gander at infiltrating Tier-II and III urban areas over the course of the following two years after the dispatch, setting up the assembling unit, with a mean to construct an extraordinary EV market, just as work on the charging foundation prior to going worldwide.
Source: Business World
