Bharat Forge concludes Rs 30 crore investment in Tork Motors, raises stake to 49%

Bharat Forge, the country's largest forgings company, has announced that it will increase its stake in Pune-based electric motorcycle start-up Tork Motors to 48.86 percent.

In February 2018, Bharat Forge had picked up a 45 percent stake in Tork Motors for a investment of Rs 30 crore and had said it would acquire stake in three tranches on achieving various milestones from time to time.  The start-up, founded by engineer Kapil Shelke, which is said to be the country's first electric motorcycle company, is expected to launch its first product, the T6X, soon. The T6X is powered by a 6KW lithium ion battery and manages an impressive 27Nm of torque and a range of 100km in a single charge. Top speed is limited to 100kph at present and the battery is good for 80,000-100,000km, the company claims. The bike’s battery can reach 80 percent capacity with just one hour of charging, and gets fully charged in two hours.

In a notification today, Bharat Forge has announced that in conclusion of the definitive agreements under Tranche Ill, the company has subscribed to 1,895 equity shares. And pending allotment of shares by Tork Motors under an ESOP Scheme to its employees, Bharat Forge currently holds 48.86 percent of the total share capital of Tork Motors.

What seems to be an interesting development for the electric motorcycle maker, the company is all set to geared up to roll out its first product in the country. Last month, the company roped in Roy Kurian, who heldthe position of senior VP in charge of sales and marketing at Yamaha Motor India. In addition to introducing Tork Motors' flagship product, the T6X, Kurian will also focus on strategic tie ups, marketing and distribution of other forthcoming models.

Tork Motors has a proprietary drivetrain technology called TIROS (Tork Intuitive Response Operating System) which is the intelligence that drives the machine. The company's team has strengths in engineering, automotive design, embedded systems and automotive electronics that are assisting in creating practical electric mobility solutions for India with T6X. Tork Motors holds more than 40 different IPs with respect to their technology, design and trademarks. According to the company, the yet-to-be-launched motorcycle will solve rider pain-points with value-added features like GPS, utility storage, cloud connectivity and phone charging.

Also read: Bharat Forge produces millionth crankshaft for Daimler's flagship heavy-duty truck engines​
Bharat Forge records eighth consecutive quarter of strong growth