Electric bikes, the future of Indian two wheelar

It's been just two years since the Yobykes has entered the market but with their popularity and unique concept it has become synonymous with electric two-wheeler. Electrotherm India Ltd (EIL), India's largest electric battery operated two-wheeler manufacturer is aggressively promoting Yo bikes all across India. EIL is an Ahmadabad based 2000-crore company and till now it has sold over 75,000 units of its Yobikes in the country. Since there is no alternative of this technology, the electric bikes are all set to become future of two wheelers around the world. According to Mukesh Bhandari, chairman and chief technical officer of EIL, the Company had an edge over its competitors as the company had expertise in power electronics. The company had injected around Rs 150 crore in the project since 2003-2004. He further added that, "From Rs 5 crore that was sanctioned to me by my board in 2004-05, I set up two assembly lines to churn out one lakh units per year. I do not go by figures and what critics say because I believe in the technology and dream of a city free of petrol bikes," At present the company is selling its electric bike in seven variants including two high speed variants. Company is also planning to launch two new models in the year 2010. According to the company the high speed segment of electric two wheelers will account for two third of the sales within next two years. The high speed variants include YOspeed and YOEXL-Er and the low speed variants include bikes like YOsmart, YOelectron and YOxplor-ER. The low speed variants have been specially designed and manufactured for school going students as they do not require licence and helmet to ride these bikes. Delhi is the biggest market for EIL as 20% of its net sales come from Delhi followed by West Bangal which accounts for 15 % sales of EIL. Due to volatile petrol prices in past few years, sales of electric bikes increased at a high rate. As increasing global warming forcing to adapt environment friendly technologies, the electric bikes seem to be the future of two wheelers in India and around the world. According to Society for Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, in next two years the sales of electric two-wheelers are expected to grow double fold from 1,20,000 bikes in 2009 to 2,40,000 bike in 2011 and 3,20,000 electronic-bikes in 2012.