EXCLUSIVE: Kinetic Green CEO Talks About EMPS Subsidy, Upcoming Rivals Like TVS E-XL

We had a chance to speak with Kinetic Green’s founder and CEO Sulajja Firodia Motwani recently, and she revealed interesting details about Kinetic Green’s upcoming projects, along with a few other things, like the manufacturer’s position on the new EMPS subsidy, and more.

E-Luna Fleets

With the recent partnership with BigBasket, Kinetic Green handed over 130 E-Luna multi-utility electric 2-wheelers to Safe and Secure Delivery Solutions, the official delivery partner of BigBasket. With this, the manufacturer also plans on expanding into similar tie-ups with other e-commerce brands. Such partnerships would naturally mean a large fleet of E-Lunas will have to be operated and Kinetic Green is working on creating a fleet management system to address this. 

According to Motwani, “We are working on something called E-Luna Fleets. That's the brand we have come up with, which is a complete solution approach. That means we have tied up with financiers who can lease the vehicle, we can put fast charging at the fleet location.  We can provide battery swapping, we can also provide service, there is a full service with SLAs, which means our teams are there to provide service, which includes any of your spare batteries, any of your spare controllers or for anything which is failure prone.”

But E-Luna fleets won’t be operating on an annual maintenance contract (AMC) model and instead Kinetic Green will be assigning an engineer per 100 e-scooters to supervise the technicians and maintenance crews working at the fleet headquarters. 

EMPS Subsidy And Impact On Sales

With the end of the FAME 2 subsidy, the government has launched the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS), coming into effect from April 1, 2024 till July 31, 2024. The scheme has cut down the amount of subsidy that EVs will get per kilowatt hour from Rs 10,000 per kWh with FAME 2, to now a maximum of Rs 10,000 for any electric two-wheeler under EMPS. 

With such a drastic shift in policy, the entire EV industry will experience a shock as prices have gone up after April 1, 2024. According to Motwani, the effect this reduction in subsidy will have on sales will be limited to B2C sales. 

She said “So, it could have some short-term impact on B2C sales. I think it was a very unfortunate time where you were just beginning to see a demand pick up and serious interest from customers in electric two-wheelers. Now, it might have some dampener.”

But she was also quite optimistic when looking at the long-term picture, adding, “Long term it is electric anyway because metal prices are also coming down. Cells will be made in India in the next 1 or 2 years. So, prices will come down further. So, I think that overall the pricing will keep coming down.”

Rivals And Competition

The growth of electric scooters and two-wheelers in general has attracted many traditional petrol-powered bike manufacturers to make their own EVs. TVS recently trademarked the TVS XL EV and TVS E-XL names, indicating that they are planning on launching a multi-utility e-scooter similar to the E-Luna. With the prospect of increased competition in the market, we were curious about how Kinetic Green plans to approach things.

On this matter, Motwani said, “In every market, there is competition. That is a fact of life. But I think we have two-three benefits. One is that the Luna brand itself, you know it is kind of very top of mind and loved and accepted. We do have a first mover advantage and you know the fact that our dealers will be specifically focusing on EVs, you know they will focus on promoting the e-message.”

Company Focus: B2B Or B2C?

Lastly, with the launch of the E-Luna and partnerships with e-commerce platforms, the question arises: What will the focus of Kinetic Green be as a brand? Will it be geared towards B2B or B2C? On this, Motwani said, “If you look at our scooters it is all B2C, three-wheelers are mostly B2C. E-Luna has a unique B2B appeal. 

Currently, the manufacturer is trying to maximise the B2B appeal of the E-Luna, and Motwani further added, “So, in E-Luna we might see a different strategy. And overall if you ask me as a company our big focus this year will be E-Luna. So, I mean everything else on one side, E-Luna on one side. So, we are going to focus on building this brand.”

Kinetic Green is currently working on ramping up production to meet the expanding demands. Overall it will be interesting to see how the manufacturer moves forward and what lies ahead for the E-Luna and other models in their lineup.