Ola Electric has decided to embrace the two-wheeler commute option for its users in India and other countries. To initiate this, the company has announced the acquisition of Etergo BV, an electric scooter manufacturer, on Wednesday.
Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Etergo BV produces light-weight and smart electric scooters. The one model by the company that is up for pre-orders at the moment is called AppScooter. It promises a range of a whopping 240 km and an acceleration of 0 to 45 kmph in 3.9 seconds. It also claims to be the world¡¯s first scooter to run Android apps.
Ola Electric¡¯s acquisition of Etergo BV will help it attain design and engineering capabilities to build similar smart electric two-wheelers for its markets. The company plans to launch its global electric two-wheeler in India in 2021.
A company release mentions the Amsterdam based firm¡¯s experience with vehicle development. As per the release, Etergo BV has worked with leading automotive companies including Tesla, Ferrari, Jaguar, BMW and General Motors.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder & Chairman, Ola Electric mentions the benefits of two-wheeler EVs over electric cars, ¡°With electric, digitally connected capabilities, two-wheelers will further emerge as the most preferred urban mobility paradigm around the world and empower every consumer.¡± So naturally the idea of making such electric scooters in India appealed to him.
Such partnerships between the automobile OEMs and ride sharing platforms are commonplace these days, even more so in the EV industry. Bajaj Auto Ltd, for instance, was recently confirmed to be working on sub-Rs 35,000 electric scooters for electric two-wheeler hailing app Yulu. The companies will be producing parts of the electric scooter in China and will assemble them in India for completion.
Earlier, Yulu planned to procure 1 lakh such electric scooters from Bajaj within the year 2020. However, with COVID-19 induced lockdowns across the globe, the partnership might be seeing some delay in fruition. As is the case with Etergo, which says production of its e-scooter has been delayed by 2 to 3 months, right on its website.??