Higher localisation to see Zbee price slashed from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh

Sweden’s Clean Motion, which flagged off commercial operations of 10 of its Zbee e-rickshaws in the DLF Cyberhub in Gurgaon in early March, is now adding another 15 units to complete its 25-unit cluster that it had originally planned for.

“We have received a phenomenal response to the Zbee, both from DLF and from customers. We will also start operating 25 e-rickshaws in the Noida Mall of India by end-July and follow it up every month with new city additions like Jaipur and Agra,” Anil Arora, Country Head, Clean Motion India, told Autocar Professional.

The company has also kick-started the localisation process of the e-rickshaws at its Faridabad assembly plant in Haryana. The Zbee currently comes in CKD kits from Sweden and has only 5 percent local content comprising the windscreen, tyres, wind blades and rubber components. In another six months, the plan is to step up the indigenisation level to 60 percent including larger components like body parts, chassis, front fork, wiring and electronics like lights.

Talks are currently underway with local vendors and once the indigenisation plan is on stream by the year-end, the Faridabad plant will assemble 4-5 units of the Zbee every day. At present it assembles 2 units per day. This will help bring down the price of the Zbee from the existing Rs 500,000 down to Rs 300,000 by the end of 2016, says Arora. The price is inclusive of taxes and excise. 

Recommended: Clean Motion India CEO says Zbee EV’s India model has global potential