Adur Pradeep, OP
Bhubaneswar: With global warming and pollution being major threats for the environment, the focus of governments across the world has been on the promotion of e-vehicles.
In India too, there have been steps from the part of the government to promote the use of e-vehicles.
Several companies in the country have come forward to innovate and introduce new concepts in the field of e-vehicles. One among them is Saera Electric Auto Pvt Ltd, which manufactures Mayuri e-rickshaw.
It started manufacturing battery operated tricycles — popularly termed as e-rickshaws — in the National Capital Region first and went on to expand its operations all over the country, including Odisha.
The company said its intention to develop e-rickshaws was to save fuel to enhance the economy of the country by reducing the import on fuel and also save foreign exchange.
The Mayuri e-rickshaws entered the Odisha market last year via Swapna Auto Care.
“Swapna Auto Care, which was launched in April 9, last year, introduced the Mayuri e-Rickshaws in Odisha,” Swapna Chowdhary, CEO of Swapna Auto Care, told Orissa Post.
The major products of Mayuri include passenger e-rickshaw, cargo loading e-rickshaw and e-rickshaw dumper.
The seven-seater battery operated passenger e-rickshaw can be recharged with normal household power supply, according to information available at Mayuri’s website. It is a low maintenance, low running cost, eco-friendly and non-polluting product.
“We have sold around 150 units of Mayuri so far,” Swapna said.
The company has plans to set up an assembly plant for e-rickshaws in the state this year to reduce costs, the official said.
“We have dealers across the state for Mayuri e-rickshaws,” she said.
Besides, the company has been selling Tunwal e-bike in the state.
“We sold around 250 Tunwal units so far and expect to sell 500 vehicles this month,” she added.
Regarding the prospects of e-vehicles in the country, the director of Tunwal, Amit Kumar Mali, was quoted as saying in a news report during the launch of e-bikes in Guwahati: “The India government is planning to replace at least 50 per cent of fossil fuel vehicles by electric ones by 2050. This has been made in keeping with Make in India and Swachh Bharat policies of the Narendra Modi government.”
The electric vehicles market in India is expected to expand at a CAGR of 77 per cent in terms of value through 2025, according to a recent report published by Persistence Market Research named “Electric Vehicle Market: India Industry Analysis (2012-2016) and Forecast (2017-2025).
“For Mayuri, we have dealership in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Kendrapara, Bolangir, Junagarh, Keonjhar, Behrampur, etc,” the CEO said.
“Some of the products of Tunwal are Sport 63, Storm ZX, Flash and Electrika-48,” she said.
Tunwal has been targeting students and elders for their bikes. “E-bikes have safe speed, making them apt for students and elders,” the company claims at its website. “The vehicles have an ideal speed for city traffic. Besides e-bikes are light weight and hence safe to ride,” Tunwal claimed. (PNN)
