E-Bikes and Entrepreneurship

The Amritsar Agenda

Belief is that the ratio of population (resident and transitory) to existing motorised vehicles in Amritsar has reached unsustainable levels, resulting in clogged roads, poor air quality and environmental impact on monuments, due to use of gasoline.

Electric bikes (E-bikes) are need of the hour, to ensure Amritsar can continue to grow, without chocking on infrastructural bottlenecks. One sees them increasingly replace short to medium distance transport, within the city, in the future.

This creates opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Purity and Pure Air

Amritsar, seat of the Golden Temple has a population of 2.6 million, with 3 million visitors every month. This has resulted in high pollution and traffic congestion around the Temple. The City, ranked among the Top 30 most polluted cities in the world, needs its pure air back. And gasoline is not the answer.

The Punjab Government is looking to make Amritsar one of the most preferred tourist destinations in North India. And plans to invest Rs. 700 crore for its development. In addition, the State Government is planning to promote Amritsar as a gateway for a one-to-five day trip to 18 tourist destinations of Punjab.

One key to reducing pollution would be to decongest the area around the Temple, the high traffic zone. With 3 lakh autos, 8 ? lakh two wheelers, and 2,500 private taxis, all guzzling gasoline; it is important to go green. Amritsar has to fight the triad of “pollution, traffic and gasoline”.

The answer – electric transport on two wheels.

Transport on Two-wheels

A typical tourist spends Rs. 1800 for a day, visiting three tourist spots of the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh and the Wagah border as a priority. While the first two are quite close, the third is 30 kms away from the city centre. 

It would be important that E-bikes are encouraged as modes of shareable transport. Let us compare E-bike with other conventional two-wheelers. The two-wheeler runs on petrol and gives a mileage of 50 km/litre. So a 200 km day trip around the city would consume 4 litres of petrol, at a cost Rs. 320. Rental for a day is Rs. 300. This would raise the total cost to Rs. 620. Compare this to Rs. 250 for an E-bike for a day and 200 kms, on a single charge of the vehicle; a saving of 60% compared to the petrol scooter. In addition, Rs.370 is a 20% saving in the average daily budget of the traveller; which one could look to spend elsewhere in the city, boosting the local economy.

Even in comparison to private scooter taxis, which charge a minimum of Rs. 20 for a 2 km stretch and Rs. 6 per km subsequently; the E-bike taxi charges Rs.10 for the first 2 kms, and Rs. 4 per km, thereafter. So not only is it environment friendly, but also more cost effective, at almost 50%.

Building the Base

There is a case for E-bike provider companies to target transit points like bus and railway stations, and other high traffic zones so that they can create a facility – an area where one could pick up and leave the two-wheeler. It will be important to test the market and learn from experience.

It would be logical to start with 100 -110 electric bikes to be provided for rent, or to operate as taxis. Three charging stations at high traffic locations – near the Golden Temple, Wagah Border and Bus Stand, with a capacity to charge 50 E-bikes/scooters, would be the initial requirement. A charging station (typically 16 feet by 25 feet in size) is like a warehouse, with requisite number of plug-in sockets.

The government will need to support them, especially transport and transit agencies. Celebrity endorsements from people like Gul Panang would help. And local civic authorities would need to be proactive, in aligning different agencies and involving the community.

Government subsidy, public awareness, technical support and extended manufacturer warranty are key measures to attract customers for electric vehicles.

Instead of solely depending on local OEMs, the government should encourage more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to create and serve, faster, better and greener Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure. Consortiums of relevant companies in transport, energy and power electronics sectors would be key.

Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Starting with 100 E-bikes in October 2018, and growing to about 500 by January 2019 in Amritsar is a clear business opportunity. How the state government’s plan for city development pans out, would decide second order effects in this area. Let me illustrate with an example. If tourism in Kapurthala is promoted, along with Amritsar (distance between the two is 66 kms), and “Green is Good for Heritage Tourism”, E-bikes could make their debut in Kapurthala, as early as January – February 2019, maybe with 15 - 20 bikes. And there could be more such examples.

There is a clear opportunity for entrepreneurs to take E-bike franchises or operate a fleet of two-wheeler taxis. A case in point. “eBike” – a start-up is set to launch India’s first ever electric bike rental platform. It is offering franchises, and is looking for interested people.

It is clear that E-bikes are something whose time has come. Across the country, initiatives similar to Amritsar are being planned/implemented. At the start of next fiscal, i.e. April 2019, there could be 3,000 – 4,000 E-bikes in operation, across multiple cities. Thanks to Smart City projects.

Customising the Customer Experience

Information Technology could also be an important enabler. Superior customer experience drives growth in customer acquisition, and revenue.

What makes a superior customer experience possible, of course is data.

According to a recent Accenture survey, nearly all (98%) of companies considered high performers in customer experience say they are data driven around it, versus just 55% of all other companies surveyed. And 91% of high performers in customer experience say that data and analytics are critical to driving customer experience improvement versus 66% of all other companies surveyed.

Organizations interact with customers in many ways, and the data surrounding these interactions can be captured from many sources such as IOT sensors, Point-of-Sale (PoS) systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, web sites and social media.

By applying data analytics, predictive analytics and machine learning practices, businesses can analyse customer data in near real time for every customer interaction. This gives companies the ability to get a complete, single view of how customers behave, what they buy or need, and how they will likely interact in the future.

Integrating IOT and data analytics/machine learning with E-bikes, is going to be important, not only to offer more services to customers, but also to grow the market.

The Government needs to support these entrepreneurs, in order to grow the economy and social prosperity.

Shivang Ranjan