The art of being a salesman will now really come to the fore. Having sold petrol-powered motorcycles and scooters for over 14 years at India Yamaha Motor, Roy Kurian who was senior VP in charge of sales and marketing at the Japanese major when he quit on January 31 this year, has joined the Pune-based electric motorcycle start-up Tork Motors as its head of sales and marketing.

Kurian, who is tasked with the primary assignment of introducing Tork Motors' flagship product, the T6X electric motorcycle, will also focus on strategic tie ups, marketing & distribution of the forthcoming models.

Commenting on Kurian joining the Tork team, Kapil Shelke, CEO and founder, Tork Motors, said, “We are delighted to have a veteran like Roy join our team. We are set to achieve a strong impact on launch of India’s first electric motorcycle and are banking on the wealth of information and experience Roy brings to the table."

“I am excited to be a part of the ‘future’ and it is the right time to dive in, learn & create a path for the inevitable EV space,” said Roy Kurian.

Work on the T6X began in mid- 2015 and the first prototype was unveiled in September 2016. With Bharat Forge, the world's second largest forging company, coming on board as a strategic partner in early 2018, Tork Motors says it has made progress on two fronts rapidly -- technology and skilled resources.

With the T6X in its final stages, Tork plans its launch in Pune followed by Bangalore and other cities in India soon.  A near-production-ready test mule of the T6X was snapped testing earlier this year.

Tork Motors, which is India’s first electric motorcycle manufacturing start-up , has a proprietary drivetrain technology called TIROS (Tork Intuitive Response Operating System) which is the intelligence that drives the machines.

The 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.

The T6X, built after 5 prototypes and 10 years of R&D, is high on connectivity. Apart from analysis and compilation of data for every ride, power management, real time power consumption and range forecasts, TIROS also captures the driving patterns of the rider.

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