Ultraviolette To Invest Rs 1,000 Crore In Five Years As It Targets 5 Lakh-Unit Capacity

Ultraviolette Automotive will invest around Rs 1,000 crore over the next five years to scale up manufacturing, supply chain and production capabilities as the Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler maker prepares for a sharp expansion in volumes and product portfolio.

Of the planned investment, around Rs 200 crore will be deployed at its existing facility, while approximately Rs 800 crore will go into a new manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu, Niraj Rajmohan, Co-founder and CTO, Ultraviolette Automotive, said. The investment will support production across six products spanning motorcycles and scooters.

The new facility, located at SIPCOT Industrial Park in Shoolagiri, Tamil Nadu, is being designed for an eventual capacity of 500,000 vehicles annually. “Our current facility is being scaled up to meet a demand of about 50,000 vehicles annually. But this new facility is intended to scale to about 500,000 units annually. With phase one, we will start work to build a capacity of about 250,000 units annually. The facility is expected to reach full capacity between Q1 and Q2 of 2027,” said Narayan Subramaniam, Co-founder and CEO of Ultraviolette Automotive.

Ultraviolette's EV Lineup : F77, X47, Shockwave And Tesseract Scooter

The expansion marks a significant scale-up for Ultraviolette, which currently produces two electric motorcycles, the F77 and X47. The company is preparing to add the Shockwave lightweight electric motorcycle and the Tesseract electric scooter to its portfolio.

Ultraviolette's broader roadmap comprises four electric motorcycles and two scooters. Two motorcycles are currently in production, with the Shockwave due shortly, while the fourth motorcycle will be announced later. The Tesseract is the company's first announced electric scooter and is heading towards commercial production.

New Plant To Make All Six Products

The Tamil Nadu facility will be designed as a flexible manufacturing base capable of producing all six products across different vehicle platforms. It will also cater to both domestic and international markets.

The company expects exports to account for around 15% of volumes initially, rising to approximately 25% over time. "We are targeting markets across Europe, Latin America and North America, while also beginning pilot programmes in Southeast Asia, and we already have a presence in close to 20 European countries," Subramaniam adds.

The new plant will also house an automated battery production line capable of making battery packs for the company's different vehicle platforms, from the smaller pack for the Tesseract to the larger packs used in the F77 and X47.

Why Ultraviolette Is Moving Beyond Performance Motorcycles

The capacity expansion comes as Ultraviolette moves beyond its initial focus on high-performance electric motorcycles and expands into higher-volume segments such as scooters and lightweight motorcycles. “There is no pivot at all. From our first plan in 2017, this was the exact roadmap. We are just going about things in a methodical way. Our first eight to 10 years were focused not only on launching the F77 and X47 but also on developing technology platforms that could eventually underpin a broader range of products,” Rajmohan said. The company expects its upcoming Tesseract scooter alone to generate demand of at least 10,000 units a month, based on pre-bookings and pipeline demand, despite having undertaken no significant marketing or advertising spend, Rajmohan adds.

Ultraviolette expects electric motorcycles to also see a sharp increase in adoption over the next few years as mainstream manufacturers enter the segment. “We see that the scale for motorcycles will also come up to the level of scooters in the next couple of years. In the next 24 months, we will see this sort of growth,” Subramaniam said. He added that the Tesseract will bring technologies such as radar-based safety systems to a significantly lower price point than is currently typical in the market.

Ultraviolette's Supply Chain Localisation Plans

Alongside manufacturing scale-up, Ultraviolette is also looking to deepen localisation of its supply chain. The company currently imports a limited number of key commodities, including battery cells, microcontrollers/chips and certain magnet materials. “We do see that an India supply chain is starting to evolve and we're starting to see samples coming in from different partners and different vendors on all of these three,” Subramaniam said.

The company expects to achieve full localisation across its vehicle supply chain over the next three to four years, as domestic suppliers develop capabilities in these areas. Despite the aggressive capacity expansion, Ultraviolette said profitability remains a core consideration and that its strategy of developing key technologies in-house is aimed at reducing dependence on external technology suppliers. “We have always kept profitability as a core factor, which is why the approach was in-house technology. We have very low dependency on external core technology suppliers,” Subramaniam added.