Taiwan's Kymco enters India through JV

Indian EV start-up Twenty Two Motors today announced that it has partnered Taiwan's Kymco, which manufactures scooters, motorcycles and ATVs. Twenty Two Motors says this partnership will mark the debut of Kymco into the Indian sub-continent. 

The alliance partners plan to share knowledge, technology and expertise to create premium electric mobility architectures in India and aim to revolutionise the electric two-wheeler sector by “establishing a favourable ecosystem for EVs.” Under this strategic alliance, Kymco will bring its cutting-edge, EV total solution – Ionex and Ionex Commercial – to enable consumers, businesses and governments to smoothly adopt premium electric mobility.

Twenty Two Motors says Ionex is a game-changing EV solution that eliminates all barriers for consumers to go green. Ionex Commercial is a tailor-made EV turnkey solution for commercial entities and comprises a complete arrangement of EVs, charging facilities, removable batteries and advanced IT systems.

Elaborating the strategic partnership with Kymco, Parveen Kharb, CEO and co-founder, Twenty Two Motors, said, “Twenty-Two Motors was founded with the sole aim to change the commutation landscape in India by providing powerful smart vehicles to generation next. Electric mobility is the future of the world – a near future, not distant. We envisioned facilitating Indian customers with smart EV vehicles and a proper infrastructure with charging stations and efficient battery and our partnership with Kymco is the next step in this direction. This unique partnership will prove to be a revolution for fundamentals of Indian auto sector which no one expected so far as we shall be creating a complete new ecosystem for premium EV mobility in India.”

Discussing the company’s foray in the Indian market and partnership with Twenty Two Motors, Allen Ko, chairman, Kymco, said, “Kymco is on a social mission to change modern transportation and India is one of most important markets from that point of view. We found a natural partner in Twenty Two Motors as we have synergies in terms of vision, technological innovation and outlook. Together, we aim to change the landscape of urban mobility in India. ”

“While Ionex enables consumers to go electric without compromise, businesses and governments need to have reliable solutions for charging stations, removable batteries and related IT support systems before they opt for EVs. Therefore, Ionex Commercial is here to provide a total package to empower and enable all businesses and governments to adopt premium electric mobility,” added Ko.

Launching Ionex and Ionex Commercial, new Flow scooter
The partners says that Kymco bringing Ionex and Ionex Commercial to India will help develop the EV eco-system for consumers, businesses and governments in the country. The Ionex smart battery weighs only 5kg and is designed to be user friendly.

The eco-system offers various charging solutions including standard charging, fast charging, battery swaps, or any combination. Ionex Commercial further provides a range of customisable e-scooters along with engineering services to convert existing fleets to work with the Ionex Commercial platform. It has the world’s first cloud-based EV infrastructure operating system and the corresponding business applications that work seamlessly with the vehicles, batteries, apps and charging facilities.

With this partnership, the Flow, the smart electric scooter by Twenty Two Motors, will be equipped with Kymco’s Ionex technology. The new removable Ionex battery will be lighter, easy to swap, water-proof and can be fully charged in less than an hour. The upgraded Flow will also have a fixed reserve battery on board, which is constantly kept fully charged by the removable battery. As a result, the riders can continue riding for up to 20km without assistance from the removable battery. With Ionex technology, the user will never have to wait when they remove the Ionex battery for charging, claims the company.

The upcoming Twenty Two Motors Kymco two-wheelers and the new Flow will be available at the  Twenty Two Kymco Experience Store in New Delhi from early 2019, followed by Gurgaon, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore soon afterwards.