“We Want To Be In The Top 3 EV Players,” Says Kinetic’s Ajinkya Firodia

During the launch of the new Kinetic DX e-scooter, company chief Ajinkya Firodia shared his intent for Kinetic to be one of the top three electric two-wheeler players in the country. Firodia intends to achieve this feat in the next three years, and the DX is just the start. 

The return of the DX name is a welcome one, harking back to the first gearless scooter of India: the Kinetic Honda DX, in the late 1980s. Fast forward to 2025 and Kinetic aims to start its next innings with bookings open now. The company aims to deliver 40,000 units in the first year of its operations. Prices start at ₹1,11,499 for the DX and ₹1,17,499 for the DX+ (all prices, ex-showroom Pune), with the sole difference being the inclusion of Kinetic’s telematics suite in the latter.

An evolution of the original DX design philosophy, the new Kinetic e-scooter has a bit more elegance and sleekness about it. It has a hub motor, which has a peak power rating of 4.8 kW, helping it reach a top speed of 90 kmph. The 2.5 kWh usable battery pack will be good for an estimated 116 km IDC range, which should translate to roughly 85-90 km in real-world conditions.

Kinetic Green, run by Ajinkya’s sister Sulajja Firodia Motwani, has also been in the electric two-wheeler space for a while, as it too revived the Luna in an electric avatar. However, the e-Luna uses a lot of its components from international sources and has not been able to crack the current mobility space like its ICE predecessor did all those years ago. The DX is said to be a fully homegrown e-scooter with 99 per cent of the vehicle made in India. Kinetic Engineering’s technical prowess in components manufacturing through its various divisions has amalgamated to deliver the DX e-scooter. Hence, the likelihood is that Kinetic Watts and Volts (the official company name that sells the DX e-scooter) will fare better than Kinetic Green in coming times.

While the base seems solid, it remains to be seen whether Kinetic can abide by its own timelines and whether its quality levels are on par with those of the top electric players like TVS, Bajaj, and Ather. Deliveries of the DX are supposed to start from October onwards, and in the first year of operations, the company will aim to offer 40,000 units. This will be ramped up to 1,50,000 units in the next three years. 

For the same, Kinetic has said that it will not have more models in its portfolio. It will play the variant route, where it might play around with different battery pack options and feature sets in the future. For the next three years, the company will have to sort of re-establish its presence in the Indian market, something that it has feebly managed to do over the last couple of decades as an OEM. It has taken the likes of TVS and Bajaj a good couple of years to assert dominance in the EV space, and the fruits of their patience have started to pay off. And now, these players are offering a lot of variety to different price segments with essentially one product.

However, where Bajaj and TVS have shown us good quality products right from the get go, the DX e-scooter shown at the launch still left a lot to be desired. The panels already had dings, the ‘Easy Key’ num-pad flap is flimsy and looks cheap, the charging flap takes a long while to open and the overall finishing needs to be a whole lot better. We should take it with a pinch of salt as these could be really early pre-production prototypes on display and hopefully, the final versions are up to the mark.

What has the potential to derail Kinetic’s ambitions is the ongoing rare earth element crisis. The entire EV industry is facing a major slowdown and Kinetic is going to bear the brunt of it as well. 

The road ahead as a result is full of challenges. Hopefully, Ajinkya’s intent to revive the DX being his ‘dharma’ comes with a lot less agni pariksha. After all, we don’t want to see another Motoroyale now.