Shared mobility startup Yulu to manufacture 100k units at Bajaj Auto’s Pune facility over the next three years

Electric scooter maker Yulu will now manufacture its e-bikes at Bajaj Auto’s Chetak plant in Pune over the next three years, sources close to the development said on Monday. 

In November last year, one of India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer became a strategic investor, with $8 million invested in the Bengaluru-based startup. And with that, Yulu, which has been importing spares from China, will now focus on designing and manufacturing them in India. 

According to sources, Bajaj Auto will make about 100,000 Miracle bikes in its Chetak plant in Pune, Maharashtra, enabling Yulu to expand its services to 56 cities across India, soon.   

AutoStory reached out to Yulu Co-founder Amit Gupta on Monday, who did not comment on the plans or the nature of the deal with Bajaj, citing it was confidential.

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At present, the EV startup has about 4,000 units on the Indian roads, enthralling kids and adults alike about the nature of the future of mobility across four cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Bhubaneswar.

"The intent of taking equity investment from Bajaj was to build a thriving EV led micro-mobility for India. They know how to make a great product for the country. We bring in the knowledge of shared mobility, and they know two-wheelers and India super well," Amit told AutoStory. 

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the size of the Indian EV industry is close to one million units a year. The largest EV sales have been in the electric rickshaw category which has sold close to 650,000 units to date. 

Yulu’s Miracle bike has a 48-volt motor controller with a top speed of 25 kilometres per hour. Yulu uses a lithium-ion swap battery that can last for three years or a thousand cycles. In a single charge, it can ride a distance of 60 km. On average, a customer travels two to three kilometres on the bike or a 10-minute ride to their workplace. 

The swap batteries of the Miracle bikes are carefully managed by the EV startup to ensure that the bike does not give up on the last-mile commuter. 

(Edited by Suman Singh)