Electric One, headquartered in Gurugram, was started in
2020 and now has 82 sites around India. The firm now plans to increase this
figure to 300 by the end of fiscal year 23.
Any of India’s big cities will almost certainly have an
electric vehicle (EV) or two on the roads. According to a study conducted by
the India Energy Storage Alliance, the two-wheeler sector is leading the way, accounting
for 50% of the total 4.67 lakh EV sales.
Many players have contributed to this surge, beginning in
2007 with Hero Motocorp’s Hero Electric and continuing with Bajaj’s Chetak,
Hero and Tiger Global-backed Ather Electric, TVS iQube, Bounce Infinity E1, and
now even Ola.
However, owing to a lack of EV infrastructure, customer
awareness, rider trust, or all of the above, neither company has been able to
dominate the electric car sector. Amit Das saw a significant possibility to
grow EV sales through multi-brand retailers there.
Amit explained, “We felt a multi-brand shop would be
a wonderful idea because there are so many EV brands coming to India, and local
firms are also welcome.” He founded Electric One in 2020.
The Gurugram-based company runs multi-brand retail sites
for EV two-wheelers on a franchise basis. Amit, who now serves as Electric One’s CEO, formerly worked for the talent
management firm Mercer Mettl.
Dhiraj Tripathi, a 25-year auto industry veteran, will
join the starting team in April 2022. During his business trips, he discovered
that multi-brand two-wheeler dealerships could be found all over the world.
Traditional auto dealers who have previously worked with
brands like as Maruti, TVS, and Honda are given access to the company’s
flagship showrooms, which are around 2,000 square feet in size.
A flagship store would be more suited in a city like
Lucknow, where the company intends to establish a branch in November 2020.
People run stores of less than 1,000 square feet as a side business in the second
retail category.
The third and smallest outlet, with an average size of
500 square feet, is operated by small-scale business owners in Tier III and
higher.
Kinetic Green, Cosbike, Okinawa, Evtric, and Hayasa are
some of the EV two-wheeler brands available. In recent months, the business has
also begun to distribute Yaan, its own EV two-wheeler brand. The e2W two-wheeler
is available at a few Yaan outlets.
The electric scooters are made on a contract basis by the
company, which only started selling them in 2021.
Electric One also sells Andaaz, Mayuri, and Ele electric
three-wheelers, as well as Hero Electro, Motovolt, and EM e-bikes. The firm
carefully chooses its partners based on their ability to sell, market relationships,
financial capability, and market credentials.
“This type of scanning is necessary since selling
electric vehicles is a highly customer-facing industry.”
The first Electric One store opened in August 2020,
followed by a second in October 2020.
While the COVID-19-led lockdowns affected the firm’s
capacity to operate sites and harmed sales for a while, the company emerged
stronger and opened 55 new shops between July 2021 and March 2022.
It has also increased its employment to over 30 people
and plans to hire more in the coming months. It presently has 82 stores across
India, with the majority of them in Uttar Pradesh (17). In fiscal year 2022, the
company claimed to have sold 3,225 bikes. Last year, it charged a 6-7%
aggregator margin or fee, resulting in a Rs 19 crore turnover.
While the federal and state governments are both
promoting electric vehicles through subsidies and charging infrastructure,
there is still a long way to go before people begin to trust EV bikes.
This is especially important in light of incidents like
Ola Electric’s two-wheelers catching fire and countless instances of EV battery
problems.
We must educate our clients and give excellent
after-sales support.
Amit adds, “And I believe we will open up a big
market if we can execute it correctly across the country.”
Electric One educates purchasers through their sales and
after-sales services.” The store owners who work with us educate potential
customers on basic issues such as how to use a battery. The lithium batteries
in our phones are equivalent to those found in electric vehicles.
After-sales services include connecting customers with
the right replacement parts vendors, among other things.
Electric One now competes in the multi-brand retail
format alongside Bengaluru-based Auto EV Mart by Greeves, Delhi-based VOLC, and
Goa-based BLive.
According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, the
Indian electric car industry would develop at a 36% CAGR by 2030.
