Electrotherm to set up battery mfg plant in Gujarat

Ahmedabad: Electrotherm (India), pioneer of battery-run two-wheelers in the country, will set up a battery manufacturing plant in Gujarat this year with an investment of around Rs. 20 crore. This month, Electrotherm is also commencing export of these two-wheelers to Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Electrotherm expects to sell 30,000 no-petrol, no-licence, and no-registration vehicles this year. The company’s scooter plant in Kutch currently has an annual capacity of 2.88 lakh vehicles.

Today, Electrotherm introduced its new product, YOelectron, in the 250-watt category, with a battery recharging time reduced from eight hours to 210 minutes. Weighing 73 kg, and priced between Rs 28,5000 and Rs 29,500, the vehicle can run at a maximum speed of 25 km/hr up to a distance of 75 km on a single-charge of battery.

Another 250-watt category scooter offered by the company is YoSmart.

But 50 per cent of sales is due to the 750-watt YoSpeed scooter whose maximum speed is 45 km/hr. The company, listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), already has a battery plant in China with a capacity to manufacture 3,000 kilo-watt-hour (kvh) of battery a month, which powers 2,000 electric-run vehicles.

All the batteries manufactured by the Chinese plant are consumed by Electrotherm which also procures supplies for its two-wheelers from other sources.

Battery alone costs 30 per cent of the total price of these vehicles. With the new proposed plant in Gujarat, the capacity of 7,500 kvh would be enough for another 6,000 scooters a month, Mr Mukesh Bhandari, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Electrotherm, told Business Line .

The Ahmedabad-based company has sold 60,000 battery-run two-wheelers since these were introduced in the country in early 2006.

Sold under the brand-name of Yobykes, Electrotherm would also embark on battery-run three-wheelers in the next two years’ time after achieving sale of one lakh two-wheelers, he said. Sales of two-wheelers contributed Rs 70 crore to the total sales of Rs 1,325 crore in 2007-08 by Electrotherm, whose mainstay is in foundry and steel/alloy steel industry.