Chennai-based electric motorcycle maker Raptee.HV opened its first retail outlet outside its home market in Bengaluru on Friday, with H. D. Kumaraswamy, Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, inaugurating the experience centre.
The showroom makes Bengaluru the company's second operational market after Chennai, where deliveries of its T30 motorcycle began earlier this year in March.
Raptee.HV plans to enter seven more cities by the end of the year, Dinesh Arjun, co-founder and CEO, said at the launch.
"We chose Bengaluru as our first expansion market because it's home to some of India's most informed EV riders, people who understand technology and expect performance to match," Arjun said.
He added that Raptee.HV would take the same engineering approach and service ecosystem to Bengaluru that it had built in Chennai.
The Bengaluru centre covers test rides, deliveries and after-sales support. The company said it chose the city for its charging infrastructure and motorcycling base, and that further retail and service additions will follow in a phased rollout.
Speaking at the showroom, Arjun said the T30's differentiator is a 240V high-voltage architecture adapted from electric cars rather than the low-voltage systems used across the electric scooter market. "We are building motorcycles on car technology," he said, claiming three resulting benefits, namely acceleration ahead of a petrol motorcycle, higher efficiency and better reliability. The battery, motor and controller are designed for a 12-year life, he said.
The architecture also allows the T30 to use the Combined Charging System Type 2 (CCS2) connector fitted to electric cars, which gives riders access to more than 30,000 public charging points across India. Two-wheelers currently have no common charging standard and are largely restricted to home charging, Arjun said, whereas a CCS2-equipped bike can plug into chargers operated by carmakers and fuel retailers alike. Raptee claims a full charge takes 20 minutes at a public fast charger.
The T30 is priced at ₹2.39 lakh, ex-showroom. Raptee.HV claims a real-world range of 150 km and acceleration from 0-60 km/h in under 3.5 seconds. The motorcycle carries an eight-year or 80,000 km battery warranty and a three-year vehicle warranty, along with roadside assistance.
Raptee.HV, which operates under Raptee Energy, was founded by engineers from Tesla, Wipro and other mobility firms. It says its HV-Tec platform is backed by more than 200 patents.