China's Benling to launch electric scooters and motorcycles in India soon

With a view to ride the electric wave in the Indian two-wheeler market, China's Benling is gearing up to launch a range of scooters and motorcycles beginning with the 2019 festive season.

The company is eyeing a September launch for electric scooters with a range of 110-120 kms on a full charge, while motorcycles, with 140-150 kms range on a full charge, would be launched by January, across 15 dealerships.

The new lithium ion battery-powered scooters would be priced in the range of Rs 70,000 to Rs 95,000, and the electric motorcycle in the range of Rs 95,000 to Rs 100,000.

Paritosh Dey, co-founder and CEO, Benling India said, “We have  some low-speed lead acid battery-powered scooters on sales at the moment. By September first week, we will launch our first fast speed model range. This is the model most suitable for the Indian market.”

Benling is going for the lithium-pyrophosphate battery technology, which it believes would be the best bet for India.

“We are working on providing the Indian market with Lithium Pyrophosphate batteries which are a bit expensive but better and safe. In Lithiuim-NCM you would get 800 cycles of life, whereas in Lithium-Pyrophosphate there is 2000 cycle of life,” he said.

These new products will be manufactured at the company’s factory in Manesar, Haryana for the time being. Benling is keen to install four additional plants spread across India. The Manesar plant has a capacity to make 15,000 units a year, of which 8,000-10,000 units will be sold in India and the balance exported to neighbouring countries.

“We have a plant at Manesar now but we will not stick to one plant. Because if I do all the manufacturing at one plant it would be difficult to manage freight cost. We are planning for more plants in near future. We will have one in every zone. Kolkata, Pune, Chennai and Assam,” Dey said.

The new plants will come up with investments from the board members of Benling India, each of whom will be responsible for one manufacturing zone, he said. By 2022, the company aims to have a full-fledged manufacturing plant in India and establish the country as its second base after China.

“We are trying to put them (new plants) up in FY21. Most of them will be with partnership with the Benling Group and its members. Chairperson and other members will come up with one zone set up. Without the land the investment will be Rs 1.5-2 crore and the land will more than double of that, but state governments will also provide incentives”, added Dey.

At present Benling has dealers spread in Andhra Pradesh, Telagana, Bengaluru, Pune, Satara, Guwahati, Howrah. By the end of the current quarter the company aims to have 15 dealers in place.