Kovai sees more electric bikes

Coimbatore is one of the four cities in the country witnessing increased usage of electric bikes for short distance trips. The other cities are Ludhiana, Nasik and Rajkot.

This trend, according to Ms Hemalatha Annamalai, founder and CEO of Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd (AMPVL), is likely to increase as petrol prices are always going to go up and awareness among people to get environment-friendly is picking up. AMPVL has sold over 1,500 units of electric vehicles, while the sale of two-wheelers in 2009 stood at 80,000 across the country.

Sale of electric bikes (e-bikes) is expected to touch the two lakh mark by 2012 as more and more people are going to look at the option of using electric vehicles for short distances. She said presently, “acceptance of technology, perception of the buyers and inadequate entrepreneurial skills of dealers are the constraints plaguing the electric vehicles industry. Otherwise, there is an encouraging trend with customers using petrol bikes for long distance travel and electric vehicles for short distance rides.”

Adequate investments in the R&D centres are being done in Singapore and India for continuous introduction of new technology, she said. Mr S. Annamalai, a first generation entrepreneur and an alumnus of the government college of technology, said the objective was to produce quality vehicles.