'Scooter Moment' Coming Soon for Electric Motorcycles: Ultraviolette

The electric motorcycle market is set to take off in the years ahead with a number of OEMs coming in, increasing options, and boosting consumer confidence in the segment, say Ultraviolette co-founders Niraj Rajmohan and Narayan Subramaniam.

The Qualcomm Ventures and TVS Motor-backed startup manufactures high-performance electric motorcycles. Enthused by the adoption of electric powertrains in the scooter segment, Rajmohan says the same is going to happen with the electric motorcycle segment.

Subramaniam is the CEO of the startup while Rajmohan is the CTO.

“Till date, our competition was directly against ICE motorcycles. Now there are other companies coming up with their first product in the motorcycle market, while we have our second product and multiple others planned,” Rajmohan says.

The technology and components to operate in the 2-6 kW power range for the scooter segment were readily available, largely from China, and hence more players were able to enter that segment with accessible price points.

Unlike scooters, the technology for developing electric motorcycles in the 20-30 kW power range was difficult to get, said Rajmohan. Ultraviolette worked to build the technology in-house, ranging from product design and BMS to vehicle control units and air-cooled chargers.

“When it comes to motorcycles, one important factor was the availability of technology, which frankly did not exist. We are one of the forerunners. We have built our entire technology in-house and made it accessible at price points similar to 300cc to 600cc motorcycles,” Rajmohan said.

The company has also diversified its supply chains to insulate itself from global disruptions. In 2020, it validated eight different cell manufacturers from countries like Korea (LG) and Japan (Panasonic).

The company has also onboarded some of its suppliers as investors in the startup. For instance, Qualcomm Ventures joined Ultraviolette as an investor in 2022. The startup uses a lot of their chips, says Rajmohan.

“In rare earths, we got TDK Ventures as investors. TDK is the only company in Japan that has built an alternative supply chain for rare earth magnets because Japan and China had the same issue in 2010.”

TDK Ventures is the venture capital arm of Japan’s TDK Corporation, which has operations in rare earth magnet production.

“The good part is that now, over the last few years, several other companies have also been working on this technology. And we actually welcome competition in this space,” he added.

According to Vahan data, about 1.15 million electric two-wheelers were sold in FY25, with electric motorcycles having a share of less than 1%. Ultraviolette sold 547 motorcycles during the same year, up from 249 in FY24.

Touted as the world’s first radar-integrated motorcycle and priced at a competitive ₹2.74 lakh, the Bengaluru-based company targets sales of 10,000 units in FY26 with the launch of the X-47 Crossover, its second product after the F-77 in 2022.

“In about two years’ time, you will see that the electric motorcycle market will have the kind of achievement we had in the scooter space,” he said.