Tork Motorcycles' Kapil Shelke wants to give India its fastest electric motorbike

During your earlier days of experimentation you wanted to make the world's fastest electric motorcycles. How far are you away from it?

Actually, this was in 2009 during the college project that we decided to make electric motorcycles that would be the fastest in the world. However, later on, we realised that it is too expensive and difficult to make. So, we thought of making at least India's fastest electric motorcycle with a speed of 85 kilometre per hour.

What were the challenges you faced in pursuing your interest in a market segment which does not have many success stories in India?

The major challenge is that of perception. People have lots of apprehensions about the electric vehicles due to lack of enough infrastructure related to them at present in the country. For example, when I say that I am into business of making 'electric motorcycles', people respond saying, "Accha, toh tum scooter banate ho? (So you make scooters?)" We, therefore, plan to correct these perceptions before our formal launch.

The first thing that comes to an average Indian's mind is how much mileage does it give. Please comment.

If you take the economics of thing, then you can buy a new motorcycle from the cost saved during the entire life of the electric motorcycle. Though, the cost of charging may differ from state to state. In Maharashtra, it may cost around Rs 10 per charge (which takes about 2 hours and lasts for 100 km of driving). In that sense, it gives you the most economical driving average which comes to mere 10 paise per kilometre, which is dirt cheap for travelling in today's age.

Is it targeted at city travelling and for brand conscious purchasers who like to remain connected all the time?

We have designed T6X for everyday use. It has been clubbed with a host of exciting features never seen in the two-wheeler segment like onboard navigation, storage, cloud connectivity, full digital display, quick charge and superior acceleration. It will connect with customer's android or iOS device to communicate its health, range, service alerts and customised riding profile.

How many parts have been produced locally and how much of it is being imported?

We are developing significant parts on our own while the common ones are being sourced from vendors. Battery, of course, is imported, like the rest of the industry players do. The battery is of the highest quality and may last up to 80,000- 1,00,000 km. (Battery forms about 50% of the total cost of the motorcycle.)

Are you sufficiently funded?

The company has already raised its first round through angel funding from a host of marquee investors including Ola founders Bhavish Agarwal, Ankit Bhati and a group of angels led by Harpreet Grover, co-founder and CEO of CoCubes. The company is at present sufficiently funded to finish R&D and start production.

What is your sales target?

We have a sales target of 100,000 electric motorcycles in first three years of operations across metro and tier I cities of India and reach a cumulative sales figure of 500,000 by 5 years.