Chennai-based electric motorcycle startup Raptee.HV launched India’s first high-voltage electric vehicle, T30, on Thursday here as the company plans to set up its delivery centre in the city’s Velachery area and in Bengaluru by March or April. Raptee’s parent company, Raptee Energy Private Ltd, plans to delivery of its EV bikes in Kochi, Hyderabad, Pune and Gurugram cities by the FY27, and aims to expand it to tier-2 cities by FY28.
Dinesh Arjun, CEO and co-founder, told TNIE, “The company is rolling out its bike to first 15 customers, and gradually we will delivery to other customers. We have 1,000 booked customers in Chennai and another 7,000 who are in other geographies in the country. We want to grow in cities where we can have service centre set up. The company is the finalising of delivery and service centre facility in Bengaluru, which is expected to happen by March or April. We have finalised dealers.”
The vehicle has two different variants – T30 and T30S – with three separate colours. The company will deliver T30S, which is sportier in lookwise, in the next one week. The company provides eight-year battery warranty and three-year vehicle warranty with free services for the first year. It is founded by ex-Tesla employee Dinesh Arjun, Karthikeyan Adhikesavan, Keerthivasan Ravi, and Phunith Kumar Viswanathan in 2018-19 when it was an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) providing design, R&D support and supplying components to some of the big players in the industry.
The EV manufacturing is transformational in the sense that normally all the EV bikes have 48V-72V battery architecture, whereas Raptee has cracked technology that provide 240V high-voltage supply to its bike, a system that enables high speeds without the thermal degradation, power drops, or overheating of the Raptee vehicle. The charger that it provides with the bike up the battery with one hour at home and normal car charger, which is found in petrol outlet or charging stations, can be used for Raptee’s bike, charging it within 20-30 minutes, claimed Arjun.
The CEO also said it is discussion with some of the tier-1 two-wheeler manufacturers in India for strategic collaborations for R&D services to them. “Nothing as been finalised so far. So, we cannot confirm with which companies we are discussing the collaborations. The discussion is at the initial stage.” The company is currently operational from Chennai’s suburban area of Mugalivakkam on five-acre land, which now produces 1,500 bike units, and has the capacity to manufacture 9,500 units per month.
The company has also received 40-acre land in Cheyyar, Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu from the State government. Arjun said the company would move to Cheyyar after next two years when the demand for its vehicles is expected to rise. In 2021, Raptee.HV was also the only OEM to be awarded a non-dilutive grant of Rs 3.25 crore from the Automotive Research Association of India- Advance Mobility Transformation & Innovation Foundation (ARAI-AMTIF). The company is also to receive another Rs 6 crore from the Union government. The company is importing lithium-ion batteries from Taiwan and Malaysia, and the major semiconductor chip supplier in Bengaluru-based Kaynes Technology.