Tell us about the inspiration behind founding a high-end e-bicycle brand in India and what is your vision for the future of the company.
When we started EMotorad as a premium e-bike brand and were looking into how to position our product, we knew we had to first give India a taste of what exactly an e-bike is – it cannot be done with a low-quality or sub-par product. The price point was not a concern, but the right sort of quality definitely was. While building a high-quality product, the price automatically went up, and that is how our e-bikes shaped up. When we launched in 2020, it was still very early days, and the country adopted e-bikes at a promising scale, that is how we got the flywheel rolling. As and when the scale increased, our prices dropped proportionately. Today we’ve stabilised costs and offered customers three different categories – X- factor, Desire, and Elite at very attractive price points. I believe India will keep adopting these e-bikes in ever-increasing numbers, as and when customers experience them for the first time. From our side, we wanted to give them the absolute best right at the outset, and that’s why we launched with a high-end e-bike. In a way, it proves our capabilities to the market.
Briefly tell us about the response you have received for the premium cycles in India and also for your economy range.
Well starting with e-bikes in India, we’ve got a fantastic response. People have started recognizing that e-bikes can be a multi-purpose tool. It is what you might call an actual hybrid – you can use it for both commercial as well as professional purposes. I believe people have started using them not only for normal weekend biking but also to commute to offices, which is a fantastic use-case, one that we want to build and promote. Globally too, these are the most popular use-cases that we see being tapped into and these are quickly providing the necessary business volumes. Take economic ebikes, these are being bought by the crowd who went into the store to buy a normal bike for 10-15k and instead paid the remaining delta and upgraded to an ebike. Why? Because they saw the value addition that an ebike would bring. I think that is still early days, but we are off to an extremely good start – there are even kids who have adapted to ebikes, and I think we have a long way to go to tap into the true market potential.
You have recently expanded your business to offline stores in India while other competitors are inclined towards expanding their reach online. What was your reason behind it?
We strongly believe that an e-bike is definitely a touch-and-feel-based product and falls under a very new category in India. People need to ride one to get an idea of its power and potential and so, for us, offline cannot be ignored. We are not only focused on either purely online or purely offline, we are more of an omnichannel company – we are the highest seller on Amazon, and we sell through our own website and other e-commerce platforms as well. But apart from that, we have a 200+ strong offline presence across the country, and I think that makes our consumers’ faith in us unshakeable. This also gives us a strong aftersales presence in the ecosystem. Cycling as an industry doesn’t need much after-sales support, but the e-bike industry does, and that is where our offline network comes into play.
What are your future plans for further offline retail business expansion?
We have opened 3 exclusive business outlets in the country apart from our 200+ multi-brand dealers. We plan to expand these exclusive business outlets to around 7-10 stores within the next year itself. We’d love to be present in the multi-brand outlets. The strategy is very clear. In multi-brand outlets, people are coming in to buy a traditional cycle, and end up upgrading to an e-bike. We want that comparison to be drawn between the two seemingly different segments. It helps demonstrate how much more polished and practical our product is, so it works as a good strategy for us.
You started out with Desert Eagle and Nighthawk, both named after iconic firearms in pop culture. Why did you not continue that naming trend for your more affordable offerings?
Yes we did, and maybe in the future, you will see us launch more products under this banner, within the ultra-premium range. At present, it is a marketing call and I don’t have much of a say on it. Our consumer base surely definitely does seem to love them though.
What kind of percentage is the ultra-premium e-MTB segment as compared to the overall MTB market in our country, which is already a niche market?
The ultra-premium niche is infinitesimal right now in India, but MTBs are seeing very good market acceptance as a product category, as they are seen as far more versatile. People are still learning more and more about MTBs every day and I think this rising awareness will be reflected in the sales volumes as we go forward.
There seems to be a bit of a gap in the lineup, as the EMX is roughly 1/9th the cost of your top-of-the-range offering, the Nighthawk. What are your future plans regarding filling this gap?
Currently, we are focussed on the range that sits between Rs.30-60k range, because that is what makes the most business economic sense. As we move forward, probably by the mid of next year, we’ll be launching some more exciting new products in the Elite range which might start at Rs.1 lakh or more.
