Book for Rs 2000: Okinawa launches fastest electric scooter 'Praise' in India

Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer Okinawa Autotech plans to introduce an electric bike in a couple of months as part of its plans to scale up operations in the country.

Okinawa Autotech launched its second electric scooter Praise priced at Rs 59,889. The firm is also going to launch its first electric motorbike in the next couple of month. Now Okinawa aims to sell 5,000 electric scooters in 2017-18 and plans to have a healthy 500 outlets by 2020. The scooter can be booked for Rs 2,000 at all the 100 dealerships in the country.

Commenting on the new product Praise, Okinawa MD Jeetender Sharma said the model has a range of around 170-200 km on a single charge and can attain a top speed of 75 km per hour. It also comes with a boot capacity of 19.5 litres and various features like disc brakes, mobile charging point, alloy wheels and different driving modes.

Founded by Jeetender and Rupali Sharma, Okinawa Autotech Pvt. Ltd. is a 100% Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturing company that was established in 2015. The company has tied up with Japan’s Okinawa Autotech with Kenji Sumiyoshi, its executive director of sales and marketing, responsible for handling the entire sales efforts in India.

Okinawa’s company headquarter is located in JMD Megapolis, Gurugram, while the manufacturing facility is located in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan, with an installed capacity of 90,000 units per annum. Okinawa promises to bring pioneering technology and cutting edge designs to the endearing Indian consumer.

In recent time, there is a lot of buzz in electric two-wheeler sector in India, which is aiming to get rid of petrol and diesel vehicles from Indian roads by 2030.

Of late, Online automobile marketplace Droom has partnered with Okinawa Scooters, YOBikes, and big players like Mahindra and Hero Electric to bring electric vehicles on its platform.

On Monday, Japanese auto major Yamaha announced its electric two-wheeler launch in India. The company is learned to be conducting a feasibility study to evaluate the possibility of launching electric two-wheelers in India. Besides it also eyes investing opportunities for power units and batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).

Country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp is the only prominent player, which has launched more variant of electric two-wheelers than any other automaker. The firm has also invested in electric two-wheeler startup Ather Energy, which is aiming to open bookings for its first electric scooters S340 in India by early 2018.

Meanwhile, TVS Motor is developing an electric scooter code-named U218 in, in order to compete in the category with players like Bajaj Auto, Mahindra 2 Wheelers, which are all set to launch electric two-wheelers in 2018.

Earlier this month, TVS acquired a minority stake of 14.78 per cent in Ultraviolette Automotive, a startup working on electric two-wheelers and energy infrastructure.

The above report was first published in TOI.

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