Lohia Auto to foray into high-speed e-scooters, looks to take on Ola Electric’s product lines

Ayush Lohia, CEO, Lohia Auto Industries

Lohia Auto Industries, part of Rs 1,000-crore Lohia Global, revealed that it will be entering the high-speed e-scooter segment as part of its wider electric vehicles (EVs) play.  Currently selling low-speed e-scooters and electric three-wheelers (both L3 and L5 categories, groupings determined by vehicle speed, payload and motor output), the Gurugram-based firm is on course to roll out a high-speed e-scooter in September that will be priced in the range of Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh (including FAME 2 subsidies).

While Lohia Auto didn’t share the product name, it revealed that it will be available in B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) applications and will be FAME 2-compliant and will adhere to all safety and testing standards set by the government. To be available in multiple variants, the upcoming product will have two battery options: a 2kwh unit (claimed range of 50-70 km per charge) and 4Kwh (120 to 130 km per charge). The company is aiming for a minimum top speed of around 60 km per hour for this range of e-scooter.

“It is a 100 percent ground-up product, you will not find anything similar in India. It will be a product which will cater to both the mass market (for personal use) and B2B customers (food aggregators or grocery suppliers)) for deliveries, etc. This kind of product will benefit B2C firms as it will be an aspirational product and a utility product for a B2B customer,” Ayush Lohia, CEO, Lohia Auto Industries, said in an exclusive interaction with Moneycontrol.

The CEO believes it will be able to grab a sizeable slice of the market despite being a new entrant and the domestic E2W segment getting hyper-competitive.

“We are talking here about healthy competition because any new company, whether entering a segment with existing experience or with a new product, will offer some kind of combination of new product development. While traditional companies are offering products in the range of Rs 1.5-2 lakh, I am talking about a segment where the price point would be anywhere between Rs 75,000 and Rs 1.25 lakh. India being a price-sensitive market, I see a lot of untapped opportunities in the market,” added Lohia.

Lohia revealed that the product, which will be initially sold in three variants, will be pitted against the Ola S1 range comprising S1 Air (Rs 84,999), S1 (priced at Rs 99,999), and S1 Pro (priced at Rs 1,24,999). As per Vahan Data, Ola Electric is currently the market leader in the E2W space with monthly sales of 18,338 units in January, 17,716 units in February and 21,220 units in March this year.  During FY23, the Bengaluru-based EV maker sold 152,484 units, as per Vahan data.

Despite taking Ola head-on with Ola in terms of pricing, Lohia Auto has set a modest target of 20,000 to 25,000 units during 2023-24 (September-March) and 50,000 units in 2024-25.

With the launch of the high-speed scooters, Lohia Auto will also be phasing out its existing line-up of low-speed products. As Lohia said, “Once you have a product category which is more premium and which addresses the needs of the customer, there's no point in continuing the vehicles. We feel our existing customers will go for the new product.”

The EV arm of the Lohia Group has already invested Rs 100 crore to establish a manufacturing plant at Kashipur, Uttarakhand, with an installed capacity of 100,000 vehicles across three- and third-wheeler segments. While the company has no immediate plans to set up additional capacities for new products, it will be spending another Rs 50 crore for the design, development, prototyping, validation and testing of the upcoming e-scooter.

“For this new model, we are going completely ground-up and each and every component will be developed as per our product requirement. While the vehicle will be developed by us, we have outsourced battery manufacturing to a third-party specialist manufacturer.  Our intention is to completely indigenise it, though magnets, semiconductors and battery cells may still be imported,” Lohia added.  He also clarified that the company has no immediate plans to export this product.

Lohia Auto has sold more than 50,000 units of EVs comprising 14,000 e-rickshaws and 30-35,000 two-wheelers to date.  It is now planning to sell more than 300,000 vehicles every year in the electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler segments by 2027.  While the company is on course to set up more than 200 dealerships across India, it is evaluating the possibility to open its second manufacturing unit once the Kashipur unit reaches full capacity.

Lohia Auto has a target of crossing Rs 500 crore in market revenue by the end of calendar 2024.