EeVe Forseti electric scooter (Bajaj Chetak rival) to launch in April 2021

ElectricVehicleWeb.in can reveal that the EeVe Forseti electric scooter launch will take place in April 2021. The high-speed electric scooter debuted at Auto Expo 2020 in February this year.

Currently, EeVe sells only budget electric scooters. Moving forward, the Odisha-based electric vehicle company plans to cater to higher-end customers who demand better and more features. That’s where the EeVe Forseti comes in. While the company has started a localization drive, some of the components of the retro-style electric scooter, as with the other offerings, will be imported.

Initially, EeVe wanted to launch the EeVe Forseti in India by May this year, Sarthak Das, the company’s Marketing Manager, had told us at Auto Expo 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic is what disrupted the plan, but the EeVe Forseti is still a big launch for the Indian startup company:

The Forseti has a kind of retro look, and it will give you a range of no less than 90 km to a charge. It would come under the ‘registered’ segment. We will launch the scooter sometime in April or May (now delayed to April 2021) with a five-year warranty and features like GPS activation, geofencing, anti-theft and keyless entry. We’re also trying to equip the scooter with the fast-charging option.

Sarthak Das, Marketing Manager of EeVe

The EeVe Forseti has a front disc brake, LED headlight & taillight, push-button release footpegs for the passenger and twin shocks at the rear. Its top speed is estimated at close to 100 km/h and the battery is swappable. The company will publish technical information on the scooter closer to the launch.

EeVe Forseti electric scooter likely in two variants

EeVe plans to launch not one but two electric scooter models in April 2021. So, it is possible that there would be two variants of the EeVe Forseti, one with a low-output motor and low-capacity Li-ion battery and a high-output motor with a high-capacity Li-ion battery. Expect a base price of anywhere between INR 80,000-90,000, allowing the company to pitch it as a cut-price Bajaj Chetak alternative.

In other updates, EeVe has increased localisation of its current electric scooter models to 40%. The company has joined hands with Bosch for the electric motors, Aeris for IoT and Ceat and Ralco for the tyres, reaching this new localisation level.

The EeVe Xeniaa, the flagship EeVe electric scooter, is powered by a 60V 20AH Lithium-ion battery and a 250W Bosch Motor, while it takes 3 to 4 hours to be charged completely. This is the same powertrain that is fitted in the EeVe 4U. The other two EeVe electric scooter models, namely the Your and Wind, are powered by Lead Acid batteries. EeVe has equipped its line-up of e-scooters with features such as keyless entry, anti-theft mechanism, USB port and a bottle holder. The EeVe Forseti will arrive as the brand’s first high-speed scooter.

Since the start of production last November, EeVe is selling scooters in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. It has 62 dealers currently, spread mostly in the states of East and North East India. EVW understands that the company wants to have 200 dealerships by the end of 2020 for pan-India availability.

As part of the dealership expansion, it will open tens of new outlets in the West, North and South. Western and Northern states will get 70 of the new dealerships. The first dealership in Mumbai will open this month. The company also plans door-to-door service by the end of 2021. It has sold more than 3,800 electric scooters this year so far, and the dealership expansion should considerably boost the sales.

EeVe has an assembly plant near Bhubaneswar that has an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles, and in February this year, the company planned to complete the expansion of the plant soon, which would take the capacity to 500,000 units. EeVe is also building a battery assembly plant in Odisha that is expected to be operational by 2021. Within 3 years it plans to open up one R&D centre in India to develop products locally.