Ultraviolette CEO: We’re at an interesting intersection of cultures

With two new showcases, Bengaluru-based electric motorcycle manufacturer Ultraviolette Automotive quite literally, sent shockwaves across not just the Indian but the global motorcycling landscape. A relatively young brand, Ultraviolette presently has one product on sale – the F77 electric motorcycle, that entered the European market in Q4 of CY2024 marking a pivotal step in its global expansion plans.

The brand’s Co-founder and CEO Narayan Subramanyam took to the stage to announce not one but two products – the Tesseract electric scooter and a lightweight, budget-friendly electric-enduro motorcycle called the Shockwave – both of which will be production-ready in Q1 of 2026. The Tesseract, having been launched at ₹1.45 lakh – a price point matching that of the most premium electric scooters in the country (although the first 10,000 customers can buy it at a lower price point of ₹1.2 lakh) competes directly with the likes of the Ather 450X. While its torque figures are lower than the Ather 450X, the Tesseract makes 20.2 bhp of peak power, which theoretically give it a performance edge.

Despite backing from EXOR – Ferrari’s holding company, Ultraviolette remains an outlier as the electric motorcycle market is yet to gain critical mass. Demand for electric motorcycles remains relatively low in India as the ICE performance motorcycle market is witnessing unprecedented expansion and growth. At the same time the European market is witnessing a contraction, particularly when it comes to the sales of electric scooters. Why then, is the European market a key one for Ultraviolette? “There’s always an initial hype around a new technology – it’s called the trough of disillusionment” says the brand’s Chief Technology Officer Neeraj Rajmohan, attesting to the “S” shaped growth curve that e-scooters are currently witnessing. “What is happening in Europe is that people are getting electric scooters offering a sub-par experience. A lot of them are Chinese imports or white label product. And on the other hand the OEM products have been very expensive” he adds.

The rollout plan

Unlike many home-grown electric two-wheeler manufacturers who are looking to expand across South East Asian markets first, Ultraviolette is going straight for the motorcycling motherlode : Europe. At the brand’s launch event are present distributors from Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

“Europe has a culture of motorcycling, a culture of performance-driven and design-led products” says Narayan Subramaniam, who is also the brand’s Chief of Design. “It also offers a template, in terms of homologation and in terms of how it’s a distributor/dealer-led endeavour” Subramaniam adds.

Rajmohan says that at present, the brand’s Bengaluru-based manufacturing facility can easily be scaled to produce “10,000 units annually with a single shift operation, and 30,000 units with a three shift operation”, says Rajmohan. “By the end of next year we will hit the limits of our current production facility”.

When asked about just what percentage of that will be exported, Rajmohan says “This year will be the pilot year for international markets. It would just be choosing a few important segments through the summer, getting a few hundred vehicles out there. Next year, we are going to scale up for international markets. So, even with these volumes coming in this year and next year, I would say we would be at 20-30% of our volumes from a revenue point of view and India is still a key parameter for us from a growth perspective” Rajmohan confirms.

The target customer

Both Rajmohan and Subramaniam confirm that the dyed-in-the-wool motorcyclist is hard to convert. Effectively, those who bow at the altar of conventional motorcycle performance and have single motorcycle garages, aka, the bulk of India’s motorcycling population, are unlikely to opt for electric performance given the plethora of legacy motorcycles out there, which are available in various permutations across segments and price points. More than ever before.

However, Ultraviolette is playing the long game, with the intent to rope-in a fresh generation of riders who have just, or are in the process of obtaining their license. It’s where a product like the Tesseract comes in, offering both comfort, performance along with the tech and design of a much, much more expensive scooter.

Ultraviolette has also found favour among more affluent riders owning multiple motorcycles, who want a flavour of electric motorcycling to complete their garage. And when it comes to electric motorcycles, Ultraviolette remains peerless, with no homegrown manufacturer coming close. It is the foremost electric bike maker, not just in the country, but arguably in the world and that’s something the brand’s backers like EXOR have recognised. “EXOR’s backing plays a very active role in opening doors and y’know in terms of strategy, access to people and access to potential partners” says Subramaniam.

“In the European market, we are thinking in terms of licence holders as well. The F77 (whose performance equivalent would be a middle-weight ICE motorcycle) can be ridden with an A1 license as well, which is an entry-level license, while the bike is a performance motorcycle”. The same can be said for the Shockwave enduro bike unveiled yesterday. Boasting of a torque figure of 501 Nm of peak torque, the Shockwave comes-in at a price point of ₹1.75 lakh.” says Subramaniam While it’s unfair to compare it to premium enduro bikes, a torque figure like that, at a price point so accessible, could make it a potential game changer.

Still, achieving economies of scale with motorcyclists remains an uphill task for the brand which sold upwards of 1000 units last year. For most riders, the sensation of slick upshifts, quickshifters, throttle blips and the banshee like sound of an in-line four remain intrinsically hardcoded to their psyche. But when the next generation of riders want their performance fix, Ultraviolette will be ready. “What is leading us to offer (the Tesseract and the Shockwave) at a compelling price point? Economies of scale is one and the second is the in-house control on margin structures, because we own a lot of the core tech ourselves which helps us control costs” says Subramianam.

Development cycles

“Our F77 was in development for 7 years,” says Subramaniam when asked about the challenges of homologating a motorcycle at a time when electric two-wheeler market leaders such as Ola Electric are facing record drops in sales. Ola’s much-hyped entry into the electric two-wheeler market has been delayed once again, as the product, allegedly, isn’t ready for homologation. Ola Electric’s Silicon Valley-inspired “move fast and break things” approach while initially successful has resulted in various malfunctions and failures, resulting in scooters piling-up at service centres.

Subramaniam however has taken the long road. “We’ve got an internal fleet of vehicles that have each done over a lakh kilometers. Based on that we increased our warranty to 8 lakh kilometers. What that has given us is a very robust tech stack that is now modular and can scale it to multiple platforms. Unlike an ICE engine, which takes four-five years to develop but an in-line four cannot be scaled to any other segment. Developing EVs becomes scalable. We can plug and play into different systems because we built for very high requirements with the first product”