India’s electric two-wheeler players are taking to innovative pricing models to mitigate the impact of high costs in a highly price-sensitive market.
While last year saw Ather Energy announce subscription plans for end-to-end after-sales services, rival Revolt Intellicorp has taken it a notch further by allowing customers of its two new electric motorcycles to pay for them in monthly instalments.
So successful has the pricing model been, that the company said on Monday that the entire first batch of motorcycles to be delivered during the September-October period have been sold out in just four days.
Revolt’s MyRevolt Plan (MRP) model offers the RV400 for monthly payments of Rs 3,499 or Rs 3,999 spread across 37 months depending on the plan, while the RV300 is being sold at a monthly installment of Rs 2,999 for the same 37 months.
Speaking to this publication, Revolt Intellicorp founder Rahul Sharma said that the primary reason for the industry-first pricing model is to bring down upfront costs for customers.
“The rationale behind the MyRevolt Plans (MRP) is to make EVs accessible to the masses. Our no-lease, no-rental, no down-payment models give you the right to ownership of the vehicle and the Unlimited benefits included based on the Plan chosen from day one, thereby offering a complete peace of mind to our customers,” he said.
The MRP plan (Rs 3,499 per month) for the AI-enabled EVs will give full ownership of the motorcycles to buyers from the payment of the first installment, with no down payment required. Along with the per month payment plan, Revolt is also offering several introductory benefits, including a battery warranty for eight years or 150,000 km (whichever is reached first), 5-year or 75,000 km product warranty and free insurance. A basic calculation of the cumulative costs of the MRP plans shows that the customer will pay upwards of Rs 1.29 lakh for the RV400.
Both vehicles are currently being sold only in Delhi and Pune, with the firm planning to expand the offering across India in phases.
In contrast, while competitor Ather Energy offers no instalment plans to pay for the vehicle, the firm had rolledout subscription plans which bundled end-to-end after-sales services including unlimited charging, data, maintenance, labour charges and roadside assistance, etc, under its ‘Ather One’ plan starting as low as Rs 250 per month.
With charging infrastructure growing steadily and consumer sentiment for EVs shifting to the positive zone, experts say makers will continue to come up with such plans. Singh agreed, saying, “we feel this pricing strategy will be the new way India purchases vehicles going forward, we will keep evolving