Ultraviolette F77 Electric Bike: Expected Price Analysis

Launching on November 24, the Ultraviolette F77 is poised to be India’s most powerful and highest-range-offering electric bike. All that tech won’t come cheap though…

[UPDATE: Ultraviolette has launched the F77 in India. Full details in our launch story]

Bengaluru-based startup Ultraviolette Automotive made headlines back in November 2019 when it revealed its first product, the Ultraviolette F77 electric bike. Back then, it had revealed its plans of pricing the bike at Rs 3-3.25 lakh (both on-road, after FAME II subsidy). Deliveries were slated to commence in October 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the brand’s plans significantly. 

Ultraviolette saw the delay as a silver lining as the company made use of the time in implementing several significant updates that the second generation electric bike was going to get. All these changes are bound to have an impact on the e-bike’s final price when it will be launched next month. 

As a part of the update, Ultraviolette made major revisions to the chassis to accommodate a large, fixed 10.5kWh lithium-ion fixed battery pack (as opposed to the originally planned 4.5kWh modular packs) with an incredible claimed IDC (Indian Driving Cycle) range of 307km. Now, one of the advantages of using non-removable batteries is that the chassis engineering isn’t as sophisticated as the ones used for swappable batteries. There is no need to design the load-bearing structures in a way to also accommodate a complicated hinged mechanism for easy detachment of the battery. 

Moreover, having three separate removable battery packs also meant constraints in battery capacity, as each had to come with its own protective casing, thereby increasing the space occupied. So, with a fixed battery construction, the bikemaker will be able to eliminate all these engineering challenges. That said, the trellis frame is still complex in its own right, as it uses the mid-mounted motor as the stressed member. Also, this new frame has to carry the weight of this new battery pack which weighs almost 70kg. The original battery pack was about 35kg in total. On top of that, Ultraviolette has designed the frame to be versatile enough for accommodating different genres of bike in the future. 

Additionally, Ultraviolette has also gone for a cast aluminium swingarm instead of a milled unit which should further bring the costs down. The company has also tweaked the motor for better refinement and reliability, while keeping the underpinnings intact.

The large-capacity battery accounts for most of the bike’s final production costs, and the chassis engineering is also sophisticated enough for a bike of this segment. The only aspect where Ultraviolette has been able to keep the costs in check is some basic parts like the switchgear, which looks similar to the one used in the TVS Apache RR 310. Ultraviolette has been able to leverage its connection to TVS to use the bikemaker’s vendors to source said parts.

Moreover, Ultraviolette plans to keep the production limited to 15,000 units in the first year, so they will not have the economies of scale equal to other mainstream auto manufacturers.

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Keeping these aspects in mind, expect the bikemaker to price the top-end variant of the F77 at around Rs 4 lakh, ex-showroom, with the inclusion of the FAME II subsidy. According to the subsidy regulation, the incentive is Rs 15,000 per kWh; and considering the e-bike comes with a 10.5kWh battery, its final price should be down by Rs 1,57,500. The subsidy will not be more than this as the regulation also states that the cap on the incentives will be 40 percent of the total cost of the EV, which, in this case, will be more than Rs 1.57 lakh. On the other hand, the base variant is expected to cost around Rs 3.50 lakh (ex-showroom, including subsidy).

The final price in certain states will go down further due to state incentives. Nonetheless, the Ultraviolette F77 will be one premium offering. It will be an electric bike with the highest range in India, and also the most powerful. Hopefully, the prices may become slightly more competitive once the cells are localised in India, possibly a few years down the line.