EXCLUSIVE: Ultraviolette Reveals F77 Availability And Service Strategy

Its global production facility near Bengaluru is currently nearing completion

It’s been a while since we heard from Ultraviolette, the folks behind the first performance-oriented electric motorcycle in India, the F77. So we had an exclusive chat with the founders -- Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan -- to uncover any progress on the bike’s arrival. And it turned out to be quite interesting.  

Ultraviolette, like every other manufacturer, has been hit quite hard by the repeated lockdowns. Everything, from testing to R&D, has been affected, hence the delay in production. Nonetheless, it has been working tirelessly to improve the F77 during this period. The good news is that the production version has been tweaked further, improving the bike, says Ultraviolette. But more on that later.

When could we see the production version?

The company says its target was by the end of this year, but that could be extended to the first quarter of 2022, especially if there’s another lockdown. 

Its massive global production facility near Bengaluru should be up and running soon. Everything -- from battery components to the bike’s tubular frames -- has already gone into tooling for mass production (about 10,000 units). The factory’s production capacity, volumes, and other details will be revealed in the coming weeks. 

What about dealer reach and service network? 

The business is looking at a slightly different strategy. It will adopt a cluster-based approach for the first two quarters for retail and service. This means that, for the first phase, Ultraviolette will start with cities like Bengaluru and have a cluster of dealers around neighbouring cities like Mysuru. 

The initial stages will help set the tone in the first three to five cities, which will then be replicated in other cities across the country. The manufacturer aims to go global by the end of 2024, but its priority right now is capturing the Indian market. Ultraviolette does adhere to CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), which means its products are ready to ship to Europe as well.

On the maintenance front, Ultraviolette will be offering doorstep service in select cities for added convenience. If there is no major work to be done on the bike, the service can be handled at customers’ homes. However, this depends on the distributor.

Complete digitisation:

The game plan is to go digital. So interested customers can book the F77 or have it picked up for service by simply visiting the company’s website. But this will obviously only go live once the bike is launched. 

We will be having a couple of more stories published based on our chat with Ultraviolette, so stay tuned to BikeDekho.