Sub-Rs 1 lakh electric two-wheelers to challenge ICE dominance: Nemin Vora, CEO, Odysse EV

In recent years, the electric vehicle (EV) market in India has seen a remarkable surge, particularly in the two-wheeler segment. With legacy players entering the fray, startups are carving out niches for themselves by offering cost-effective solutions. We recently spoke to Nemin Vora, CEO, Odysse Electric Vehicles, to understand the company’s approach to stand on a firm ground in the highly-competitive e2W space and other aspects.
Speaking on how startups have an advantage over legacy players in the EV game, Vora explained “One big differentiator is that we don’t have the baggage of an ICE vehicle with us.”
“If you see for the major players, traditional two-wheeler players, they have that baggage to carry. Their major revenue comes from ICE vehicles. It’s not EV that is contributing majorly to their revenue. Now 90% revenue is coming from petrol vehicles and only 10% is from EV. So that restricts them from going all out in terms of promoting an EV. Secondly, all of these traditional ICE players have products which are more on the premium side. So as a startup, we are targeting ourselves to the sub-1 lakh category, which is the mass of India.”
At present, across segments, EVs are priced significantly higher than their ICE counterparts. “So what we are targeting is, we are trying to manufacture an EV which is sub-1 lakh. So when your ICE vehicle versus the EV is the same, zero premium you have to bear, probably 5,000 cheaper, then automatically there will be a shift coming towards an EV rather than an ICE. Because the initial cost of ownership is similar, your total cost of ownership is definitely going to be drastically down because here your vehicle will run at 25 paise a kilometre, there it is going to run at 3 rupees a kilometre.”

India’s EV incentive program, FAME-II, concluded in March 2024. However, the government launched a new scheme, the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024, on April 1st. It is basically a temporary scheme with a Rs 500 crore allocation, focusing on subsidizing electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers for the initial four months (April-July 2024). Speaking on the impact of FAME-II and if the sector needs subsidies, he said “Definitely it (FAME-II) has played a very big role to create awareness in the public to at least help them have a taste of the EVs compared to a traditional vehicle because you need a certain push for people to try something new and that is what FAME has done.”
“Today, though drastically the subsidies have come down, initially from 60,000 to 22,000, now it has gone to 10,000 caps. So definitely the subsidies are going down. But today the customer is very well aware of EVs. Any industry cannot lifelong survive on a subsidy. Therefore, we have been prepared for it and have designed our entire system in a way that even without subsidy, our products are sub-1 lakh and can compete with the normal petrol vehicles.”
Speaking on where the company’s focus lies in future – B2B or B2C – Vora explained that the company has been doing fairly well in the B2B sector and the company has received multiple orders from big B2B players. “But our core focus and major moving forward also, our area of attention will be the B2C segment. As a long-term strategy, B2C is what we are targeting.”
“As of now, 80% of our revenue comes from B2C and only 20% comes from B2B,” he noted. “Between scooters and motorcycles, definitely, again, the ratio is more or less similar. Like roughly, honestly, about 10-15% comes from motorbikes, 85% comes from scooters.”
Lately, there has been a strong push to ensure the safety of e2Ws, with a host of tests and certifications required to guarantee that an EV is safe for use on public roads. Vora explained how the company ensures safety at its end “At our end, there are tests done to ensure that the product’s life is very long. For the chassis, we do the test where the life of the chassis is determined. Then for the shockers, we do the cycling test where around a lakh cycles are tested. There are multiple tests component-wise that are done apart from what the government testing is there. So the component level test ensures that the product that we are fitting in the vehicle is all as per the industry standards and above par,”
“Vehicle level test, battery is standard EIS 156. Battery is EIS 156 standard. Because earlier there were incidents of the battery. So now the government has very stringent norms for battery testing. So the battery test is done. Motor level test is done. Multiple tests are there which ensure that the final product that is going to the consumer is very safe to use.”