Bounce Infinity E1 will be available on pre-bookings starting today, allowing users to reserve scooters for Rs 499 with scooter deliveries slated for March 2022.
Smart mobility firm Bounce has forayed into the competitive two-wheeler electric vehicle market with the launch of its first consumer electric scooter Bounce Infinity E1.
The ‘made-in-India’ scooter will be the first electric scooter with a ‘battery-as-a-service’ option. The scooter with battery and charger will be priced at Rs 68,999 (Delhi ex-showroom) while the scooters with battery-as-a-service will be priced at Rs 45,099 (Delhi ex-showroom) along with a monthly subscriptions starting at Rs 849 and swap charges of Rs 35 per swap.
Bounce, which counts Accel, Sequoia India and Falcon Edge among its investors will have swappable batteries in its scooters and a network of battery swapping stations that includes restaurants, cafes, co-living spaces, corporate offices, and kirana stores, among others.
Customers will be able to find the nearest battery swapping station on the Bounce Infinity app, which will have charged and ready-to-go batteries that they can easily swap with their near-empty batteries in under a minute.
“This would make electric vehicles (EVs) mainstream in India, since battery charging is currently one of the biggest problems impacting the adoption of electric vehicles in the country,” says Bounce cofounder Vivekananda Hallekere.
The Bengaluru-based startup has started pre-bookings from December 2, allowing users to reserve scooters for Rs 499 with test rides expected to happen in mid-December and scooter deliveries slated for March 2022 through its dealership network and its online platform.
Bounce had acquired 22Motors in a deal valued at about $7 million in 2021, including its manufacturing plant at Bhiwadi, Rajasthan that has an annual capacity to manufacture 180,000 scooters.
It plans to invest $100 million across manufacturing of e-scooters and expanding the battery swapping infrastructure over the next 12 months.
“I strongly believe in the potential of electric vehicles in India – it is with this vision that we launched our in-house EV mobility solutions in June 2019. Today, we are building on our success, and to facilitate faster adoption of EVs, Bounce has taken a step ahead to develop the Infinity E1. We are committed to taking on all challenges to make India a leading EV adopter globally” Hallekere said.
Bounce also operates a dockless scooter sharing business across six cities, however it was heavily impacted by the slowdown in the mobility sector during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Expanding its battery swapping network
In recent weeks, Bounce has bolstered its battery swapping network by partnering with parking solution platform Park+ to set up over 3,500 battery swapping stations across ten cities in India. It also announced partnerships with firms such as Readassist, Helloworld, Kitchens@ and Goodbox to expand its battery swapping infrastructure to 900 new locations across 10 cities.
Hallekere said they have done over two crore kilometers with the help of these battery swapping stations and done over 500,000 battery swaps.
Over the next 24 months, the startup aims to set up battery swapping stations within one kilometer of its customers and build a robust swapping infrastructure to support over a million scooters.
In the fully-owned model, users can detach the battery from their scooter and charge it in their homes through the portable charger provided by Bounce. Hallekere said one can plug this charger to any power outlet in their homes.
The scooter will provide a range of 85 kilometers under standard testing conditions with a top speed of 65 kilometers per hour, Hallekere said. “On a power mode, we have seen a range of about 50 kilometers and on eco mode, we have seen around 65 kilometers realistically on the roads” he said.
The scooter in itself doesn’t have much smarts, unlike Ather or Ola Electric scooters, but riders can use the Bounce Infinity app to check the battery range, battery level, the nearest swapping station, bike analytics, geofencing the scooter and theft protection among others.
“We don’t want to replicate any features that come on your cell phone on your scooter. You can see the battery energy left on the scooter dashboard, which we think is smart enough” Hallekere said. The dashboard will also offer other information that you traditionally see in digital speedometers such as odometer reading, ignition or side stand status, and speed display among others.The scooter will be available in five different colors – Black, Gray, Red, White, and Silver – in glossy and matte variants. Users however can customize it with various types of stickers, designs and motifs, designed by artists handpicked by the firm.
