To take an early mover advantage in the electric motorcycle segment earlier this March, the Bengaluru-based EV startup, Oben EV launched its first product – the Rorr EV electric bike. The company had been working on developing this model for a while and finally launched the bike with 16 patented innovations of their own. However, most recently company has revealed that it will not remain the only model in its lineup.
During an interview with Financial Express, Madhumita Agrawal, Co-founder & CEO of Oben EV revealed a ton of new information about the internals of the company. The company chief divulged that in the first two years, Oben EV intends to introduce four new products in the nation. She also stated that the company’s upcoming product will be an electric motorcycle as well, and is likewise anticipated to be released at the beginning of next year. As of yet, the company hasn’t provided any further information but it’s likely that this new bike will be an entry-level product and will have a little fewer features than the flagship Rorr to save up costs.
Upon further discussion, when the CEO was asked about branching out to other popular electric vehicle segments like electric scooters. She said that although scooters are getting more popular at this moment, the motorcycle segment is a bigger market in India. Hence the company wants to cater to a bigger segment with its products. Although she then also added that nothing can be said concretely about the further future lineup and if opportunities in the scooter segment arrive for Oben then they will surely look into it.
The Rorr electric motorcycle was introduced by Oben EV earlier this year with an introductory price of Rs 1.25 lakh (ex-showroom, India including FAME 11 subsidy)The motorcycle was available for purchase for as little as Rs 99,999, including government subsidies. It has a permanent magnet motor with a peak output of 10kW and a continuous output of 4kW. The motorcycle has a torque rating of 62Nm and a single-stage reduction belt drive system is used to transfer power to the rear wheels.
According to Oben, the Rorr electric motorcycle can accelerate from 0 to 40 kmph in just three seconds. It comes equipped with a fixed 4.4kWh LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) battery pack. Furthermore, it is asserted that this battery pack is more sophisticated than lithium-ion batteries and can be fully charged in about two hours. The charging system will be free of charge and installed at the owner’s home and uses a 15A power outlet.
Soon after the Rorr’s debut in March, Oben EV began accepting reservations for an amount of Rs. 999. However, the company has currently stopped accepting new reservations because they want to deliver the first batch of the 15,000 pre-booked motorcycles first. The CEO further stated that the deliveries would have begun in July. However, the plans were put off because of the global shortage of semiconductors and other issues with the supply chain. Oben claims that this year’s October would finally mark the start of Rorr deliveries.