Our Focus Is Only On Commuter Bike Segment: Oben Electric Founder And CEO Madhumita Agrawal

At the regional launch of the Oben Rorr EZ Sigma, the brand’s Founder and CEO, Madhumita Agrawal, told Acko Drive in an exclusive interaction that Oben Electric will only focus on the commuter segment in the electric two-wheeler market and not pivot towards electric scooters Oben Electric currently has three products – Rorr, Rorr EZ and Rorr EZ Sigma, and its future products are also going to be electric commuter motorcycles. 

When asked about what those future products are going to be, Agrawal said, “Motorcycle is the focus, and we’ll be getting into the O100 platform that is the next launch.” The O100 platform will be Oben Electric’s competitor in the 100 cc-equivalent segment, which it says makes up for nearly 30 per cent of India’s two-wheeler market. 

The motorcycles based on the O100 platform will also cost less than ₹1 lakh, which would make it quite a lot more expensive than ICE 100 cc motorcycles like the Hero Splendor, Honda Shine 100 and Bajaj Platina 100. When asked about whether Oben Electric has plans to expand to other segments, Agrawal said, “We are focusing only on commuter [segment].”

A few electric scooter manufacturers are venturing into electric motorcycles, vis-à-vis Ola with its Roadster series, with an aim to capture a bigger market share and Ather also announced that it intends to enter the motorcycle business. However, Oben Electric doesn’t have plans to bring out an electric scooter. 

Agrawal said, “That’s a crowded market (electric scooters) and a small market. Already, there are 10 players fighting with each other. So, this (electric motorcycles) is like a massive market. We’re talking about 1.3 crore kind of volumes. So I think we would like to rule this segment rather than getting there (electric scooter segment) and set up.”

While the electric segment of the two-wheeler market may not be as big, it is getting bigger. However, it will still take some time to become a big chunk of the two-wheeler segment, primarily owing to the lack of proper charging infrastructure.