Raptee has received a grant of Rs 3.27 crore from the Automotive Research Association of India, making the Chennai-based electric vehicle motorcycle startup among the 10 startups and MSMEs to secure this grant, under the Advance Mobility Transformation & Innovation Foundation) Industry Accelerator program.

The Automotive Research Association of India is a Research and Development organisation established by the automotive industry and the government of India.  The ARAI is the testing and certification agency appointed by the Government of India, under Rule 126 of Central Motor Vehicle Rules in 1989. ARAI certifies vehicles and components, assuring their safety, efficiency, and reliability. Any automobile to be on Indian roads requires official approval from the ARAI basis, which the state transport authorities register the automobiles in their respective RTOs.

Raptee is currently in the production stage to launch its premium E motorcycle later this year and will use the capital for the development of design and the motorcycle’s core high voltage motor controller, over the next 18 months.

Dinesh Arjun, Co-founder, and CEO, Raptee said that India is amongst the biggest 2-wheeler markets, but electric vehicle adoption of motorcycles is still at a nascent stage. “We are mostly seeing many 2W EV brands driving the market and identified motorcycle consumers as a white space. Our motorcycles will pack a punch on many fronts and will be led by cutting edge technology which will outperform the current ICE engines run motorcycle”,  he said.

With 720,733 units in the 365 days of FY2023, the electric two-wheeler industry has chalked a handsome year-on-year growth of 185 percent (FY2022: 252,543).