Uton Energia comes up with low cost EV for short travel
K SriHarsha Vardhan who is an automobile enthusiast developed this bike.
Hyderabad: While the electric vehicle industry has seen some improvement in terms of companies offering electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers, the rate of adoption has been slow. One major reason is the high cost involved in owning these vehicles. However, one Hyderabad-based company, Uton Energia has come up with a light-weight, low-cost electric two-wheeler called fortyfive which can be used for last-mile connectivity and short-distance travel.
The bike is developed by K SriHarsha Vardhan who is an automobile enthusiast and was always keen on developing a race car and an electric car since childhood. After working in the corporate world for almost 2-3 years, Harsha realised that the electric vehicle segment did not provide low-cost options for short-distance travel. That is when the mechanical engineer from Kakatiya Institute of Technology and Science, Warangal, decided to start the company in January 2019 and two years later in February 2021, his dream turned into reality when fortyfive was launched.
By making use of alternative material which costs lesser, the startup that was part of second cohort of T-Hub’s Lab32 programme, has manufactured a vehicle that is available for Rs 35,000. From handmade seats to specialised tyres, the bike is built of high carbon steel and can withstand a weight of 120 kgs, despite weighing only 6.8 kgs.
The 675 Watt-hour battery can last up to 65 km and can be recharged in less than 75 minutes. The battery cells are imported from the US and Korea as India has limited resources of lithium. It also has a remote locking system, complete with a theft alarm that notifies the user if the locks are being tampered with and it is made with hydraulic brakes.
“Other than these features, we have also developed a mobile application which provides details on the health and status of the bike like the battery health, distance traveled, and how much distance can be traveled with the charge left. The service is also done remotely through our artificial intelligence which is part of the app unless it is a physical damage,” said Vardhan who has five people supporting him in developing technology and eight people in the production unit.
The company has started the commercial sales of the vehicles and plans to start deliveries in third week of April. Apart from this, it also in talks with Hyderabad Metro to provide their vehicles at the metro stations.
The company operates a production unit in Nacharam through third-party manufacturers and the unit can make 200 vehicles per month. Currently, it has got 60-70 vehicle orders lined up and in the next six months, depending on the bookings it plans to expand the production unit. The startup has got Rs 10 lakh from Nidhi-Prayas grant from the Department of Science and Technology which helped the company build the prototype.
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