Kinetic Green, According to Sulajja Firodia Motwani, founder, and CEO of Kinetic Group, the company aims to raise $30–40 million (about Rs 249–332 crore) to expand its operations by constructing a new manufacturing plant, introducing new e-two-wheelers, and reaching the one million unit milestone within the next five years. 

With the Zulu e-scooter, which costs Rs 94,990, the company debuted in the high-speed e-two-wheeler market on Monday. Additionally, Kinetic intends to revive the once-well-known Luna brand in an electrified form for the upcoming year.

In addition, Zulu offers a subscription plan that reduces the device’s purchase price to Rs 69,000. According to Motwani, the company is ready for the possibility that the government may further reduce or do away with the subsidy program, which would lead to a 25% rise in electric two-wheelers relative to their ICE counterparts.

Within the next 12 months, Kinetic Green hopes to introduce another high-end e-scooter. The Zulu is the brand’s first domestically produced product in the high-speed scooter market. Since 2021, it has been selling low-speed scooters called Zoom and Zip.

The Kinetic Engineering group company intends to open its second manufacturing facility in Supa, near Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, with a capacity of one million units and a total investment of Rs 500 crore. The facility is being opened in response to the growing demand for electric vehicles.

“We have laid much of the business’s foundation over the past few years. We have not pursued the cash-burn model but have been profitable at the EBITDA level. Motwani said we will now have scale if we put in more money. By the conclusion of the current fiscal year, the fundraising will be completed.

Kinetic Green has sold 100,000 EVs (e-scooters and e-three-wheelers) for an estimated Rs 1,000 crore since 2021. In the upcoming year, 40,000 Zulus are expected to be sold.

Following the termination of its joint venture with Honda in 1998, Kinetics, a Pune-based manufacturer, is making another attempt to break into the mainstream two-wheeler market by entering the competitive e-two-wheeler market, which Ola Electric currently leads. After that, it tried going solo and partnering with Mahindra & Mahindra, but neither of those ventures worked out as planned.

Nevertheless, Motwani is unfazed and thinks her company, which has a strong brand recall and is vital in economic engineering, has an excellent chance to re-enter the market thanks to the electrification trend. Vahan data shows that the number of e-two-wheelers registered in November was 91,172, a 19% increase from the previous year.

She referred to her subscription model as a “financial innovation” in contrast to other subscription models that necessitate business-to-business (B2B) fleet visits to dealerships or battery-swapping stations.

The customer will receive the battery free of charge along with the scooter; her payment will be made on an actual usage basis. The monthly subscription fees will fall between Rs 600 and Rs 800. According to her, an electric vehicle (EV) with a subscription model will have 31% lower acquisition costs and 74% lower operating costs than a conventional car. With a range of 104 kilometers and a top speed of 60 mph, the Kinetic Zulu is now available with a 2.2 kw NMC battery.

Government policy to support EV

To help achieve its goal of 30% EVs by 2030, the government is introducing lower road fees, scrapping, and refit incentives. By offering capital subsidies through the FAME India Programme Phase II and state-level initiatives, the government is encouraging the installation of EV charging stations. The following incentives have been made public by the Indian government thus far. 

Globally, more and more governments are implementing policies to promote using electric vehicles (EVs). The need for this change is motivated by:

Fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Electric vehicles (EVs) have no tailpipe emissions, so they significantly improve air quality and the environment. 

Increased energy security: since electric vehicles (EVs) run on electricity, which can be produced from 0

various sources, including renewables, there is less reliance on imported oil. 

Support economic growth: The electric vehicle (EV) industry is expanding quickly, generating new employment opportunities in infrastructure development, manufacturing, and related sectors.