fyi: Electric bikes selling well in India

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DanCar
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Joined: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 - 18:49
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fyi: Electric bikes selling well in India

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1869597,00020010.htm Nearly half a million are expected to hit the Indian roads soon.

Sounds like we will see more mass produced electric bikes here in the U.S. soon.

reikiman
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Hmm...

Transportation in India is ..er.. chaotic at best. Two-wheelers is the term for bicycles, scooters and motorcycles, and these are by far the most popular vehicles on the road. At stoplights the two-wheelers crowd through the gaps between three- and four-wheeled vehicles and all get to the front of the line.

The price in the article for an e-bike is Rs 10,000-17,000, the rate of exchange is in the neighborhood of Rs 45 per dollar, so that comes to $350 or thereabouts for a 250 watt e-bike. The scooter price they quoted was Rs 26,000 or in the neighborhood of $575.

They have some interesting moves towards cleaner vehicles. In the tourist guide I was reading how the Taj Mahal was being slowly eaten by the air pollution, and the government had banned all gasoline vehicles from a 2 mile or so radius. The most common taxi vehicle is a three-wheeler open aired thing they call an autorickshaw, Bajaj imports them into the U.S. along with the Bajaj Chetak scooter. Many of the autorickshaws will carry labels saying they burn LPG or were converted to some cleaner burning fuel using a kit from Italy. But I'd seen plans announced that Mahindra Industries, one of the vehicle companies in India, has started building electric autorickshaws.

And of course the Reva is designed by a Bangalore company. My last time in Bangalore I had talked with several people about the Reva, and I even saw one or two on the street. Everybody I talked with about the car knew of and was proud of that company.

India is such a huge market a company in India can make quite a big deal just out of selling to the local market.

- David Herron, http://www.7gen.com/

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