One Electric Motorcycles, a Noida-based company announces that they had started exporting to the 8th country. One Electric, along with five African countries, USA and India, and Nepal, the company has begun trials in the Middle East region. They plan to sell 20,000 units per month across 3 continents by the end of 2022.
CEO Gaurav Uppal shares, “This fast-paced expansion is in line with our vision of becoming a truly global electric motorcycle company, and we plan to reach presence in 15 countries by the year-end. This is our phase 1 of expansion, where we understand the local market conditions, environmental constraints and requirements, engineer our motorcycles to meet them, and send limited quantities for test marketing and analysis. This phase typically takes 8-10 months, and this is why we want to start limited operations in as many regions as possible.”
“After initial performance data is assessed, we move to phase 2 of bulk deliveries in these regions, increasing numbers in a gradual manner. This phase should start by the last quarter of this year and we plan to reach scale of 20,000 units/month by mid of 2023.”
According to the company, the Indian and African markets are very similar in terms of requirements while the Middle East markets present the greatest challenge. Gaurav Uppal explains that the Middle East market requires a constant speed of 100 kmph and should also be capable of managing this at 50°C ambient temperature with a cooling system.
One Electric’s cooling systems are not a problem as their CTO Abhijeet Shaikh has over 30 years of experience in thermal management in Environmental chambers for the Automotive, Defence, and Aerospace sectors.
“Although battery cooling systems for 2 and 3-wheelers are not very challenging, they do come with some unique limitations,” states Abhijeet Shah.
“Each Region has its own specific requirements and challenges, and our design architecture enables for a quick adaptation to suit those specific requirements. The delta required to keep the batteries running in optimum temperature range is not very high, but cost of system, cost of power, suitable technology and space restrictions make the solutions extremely tailormade. For example, a battery cooling system for a fixed pack would be completely different from a swappable solution of same specs. With our teams’ 3 decade-plus experience, we are able to optimise solutions for both. Besides using conventional refrigeration systems, we have also used cryogenic systems with a high cooling rate of up to 80°C/min for other applications.”
One Electric management also shared that powertrain requirements for speed and torque vary across regions. They use both mid-and hub motors accordingly. They are currently assessing the European market, and working to meet the technical requirements.
“The European Union’s decision to phase out ICE engines by the year 2035 will open up interesting opportunities for us. This is where we stabilize our expansion, reach target sales numbers, before moving on to the South American and South-East Asian markets, marking our presence in 4 continents,” explains Gaurav Uppal.
One Electric also works with B2B e-commerce businesses in India to form strategic partnerships and will soon be operating in this sector.
