A small Manesar, Haryana-based start-up is adding intelligence to the plain old scooter and is hoping to bring about a wave in a sea full of two-wheeler manufacturers in India.
Flow, the new electric scooter by Twenty-Two Motors, is a connected smart scooter with the ability to tell you how well you’re riding the vehicle, and inform you about parts failure before it actually hits your ride.
The scooter also comes with cruise control feature, typically found only in high-end cars, and wireless charging capability.
Priced at ₹74,740, the new Flow scooter will start production in June at the company’s upcoming factory at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. Twenty-Two started taking pre-orders for the scooter at the Auto Expo on Thursday.
“Our scooter is targeted at the youth, who want everything on their mobile. With the Flow app, they’ll get customised updates about their scooter and will have the option to automatically order parts before they fail. This ensure they remain focused on other things rather than the maintenance of their ride,” Parveen Kharb, CEO and co-founder, Twenty-Two Motors, told BusinessLine .
The company will have a production capacity of 9,000 scooters a month and hopes to sell 300,000 of them in the next three years. It will invest $70 million over two-and-a-half years for this.
“We will initially have a presence in Delhi-NCR, but plan to expand it to 10 cities in nine months. The second phase of cities would include Bengaluru, Pune and Jaipur among ohers,” Kharb said.
Twenty-Two is also setting up a data centre at its manufacturing unit in Bhiawdi, which will maintain a virtual profile of every scooter sold and track the performance of each for preventive maintenance.
The vehicle weighs about 85 kg and is equipped with a DC motor powered by a lithium Ion battery, which can be charged within five hours and can power the scooter for about 80 km with a single charge. The product will be available with an option of dual battery at the higher end.