Noida based One Electric Motorcycles today announced that they have started exports to 8th country other than domestic operations.
Along with 5 African countries, USA, India and Nepal, One Electric has also started trials in the Middle East region and are planning for 20,000 units per month sales across 3 continents by end of this year.
One Electric Team in KenyaCEO Gaurav Uppal shares, “This fast-paced expansion is in line with our vision of becoming a truly global electric motorcycle company, and we plan to reach presence in 15 countries by the year end.
This is our phase 1 of expansion, where we understand the local market conditions, environmental constraints and requirements, engineer our motorcycles to meet them, and send limited quantities for test marketing and analysis.
This phase typically takes 8-10 months, and this is why we want to start limited operations in as many regions as possible.”
“After initial performance data is assessed, we move to phase 2 of bulk deliveries in these regions, increasing numbers in a gradual manner. This phase should start by the last quarter of this year and we plan to reach scale of 20,000 units/month by mid-2023.”
The company shares that the Indian and African markets have very similar requirements, while Middle East markets pose the toughest challenge.
“In the Middle East market, not only do we require a constant speed of 100 Kmph, but should be able to manage this at 50C ambient temperature, with a cooling system,” explains Gaurav Uppal.
One Electric’s CTO, Mr. Abhijeet Shah, has 30+ years of experience in thermal management for environmental chambers in the Automotive, Defense, and Aerospace sectors, therefore cooling systems aren’t a problem.
“Although battery cooling systems for 2 and 3-wheelers are not very challenging, they do come with some unique limitations,” states Abhijeet Shah.
“Each Region has its own specific requirements and challenges, and our design architecture enables for a quick adaptation to suit those specific requirements.
The delta required to keep the batteries running in the optimum temperature range is not very high, but cost of system, cost of power, suitable technology and space restrictions make the solutions extremely tailor-made.
For example, a battery cooling system for a fixed pack would be completely different from a swappable solution of the same specs. With our teams’ 3 decade plus experience, we are able to optimise solutions for both.
Besides using conventional refrigeration systems, we have also used cryogenic systems with a high cooling rate of up to 80 C/min for other applications.”
One Electric management further shares that the power train requirements in terms of speed and torque also vary in different regions, and they use both hub motors and mid drive motors accordingly.
After India, Africa and the Middle East, they are assessing the European market and working on meeting the technical requirements. “The European Union’s decision to phase out ICE engines by 2035 will open up interesting opportunities for us.
This is where we stabilize our expansion, reach target sales numbers, before moving on to the South American and South East Asian markets, marking our presence in 4 continents,” explains Gaurav Uppal.
One Electric is also working with B2B ecommerce companies in India for strategic partnerships, and are commencing operations in this sector shortly.
