Taking the EV manufacturing route to Bounce back
The Bengaluru-based ride-sharing platform’s fresh bet has a lot to do with the pandemic and struggles with contract manufacturing. Will investors buy its logic?
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Editor's note: Electric two-wheelers are all the rage in the Indian startup ecosystem this year. Ola Electric has started sales of its S1 scooters, Ather Energy is moving ahead with launches in multiple cities and traditional manufacturers like Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp are also considering a larger push into the electric vehicle space. In the midst of this comes news that Bengaluru-based scooter-rental platform Bounce is now making a foray into EV manufacturing with the acquisition of Gurugram-based startup 22Motors. This basically means that Bounce is making a retail play—manufacturing and selling electric vehicles to consumers and competing with the likes of Ola Electric, Ather Energy and Hero Electric—in addition to its dockless scooter business. (Think Uber selling cars.) In an interview with YourStory last week, Bounce co-founder Vivekananda H.R. confirmed they had acquired 22Motors for building electric two-wheelers. “We are going into an OEM play. Here too, people can buy the scooter without the battery, and come back to us for the swapping infrastructure,” he added. OEM is short for original equipment manufacturer. It’s not a big acquisition, given the …
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