When it comes to buying an electric vehicle, buyers are most concerned with acceleration, speed, and mileage. In the current scenario, however, integrating high-performance electric technology into one’s two-wheeler would cost roughly 1-1.5 lakhs. For well-developed countries, the expense is fair, but for emerging countries like India, where the majority of the population is middle- or lower-income; such upgrades are difficult to pay. The majority of electric vehicle manufacturers in India import their electric powertrains. The electric powertrain, in the end, is what makes the difference in performance.

The necessity for retrofitting becomes even more important in today’s society when the cost of a new electric vehicle is extremely high and the resale value of old scooters is relatively low. There are currently no government-approved conversion kits for existing IC engine scooters. With around 7 crore two-wheelers in India and virtually no government-approved retrofitting companies, Starya intends to provide a complete solution for customers looking to convert their IC engine scooters.

Starya Mobility Pvt Ltd was incorporated in the year July 2018 to primarily design and manufacture high-performing electric power trains for the 2W electric eco-system, since most of the O.E.M’s are importing the same.

Journey of Bengaluru-based Starya Mobility: E2W Retrofit Solution Provider

Before we started the theoretical design, we had to freeze the technical specification of the system. This led us to conduct a survey on the highest-selling ICE 2W in the country, which led us to gearless IC engine scooters below 125 CC, which as of today, is almost 60M+ on road. The conclusions of the survey are as below –

The ICE Consumer must shell out almost 1.2 to 1.6 lakhs to buy a new electric scooter that gives a similar performance to his existing gearless ICE. The vast majority of the 2W riding population is either middle or lower middle class who cannot afford a high-performing electric 2W. The shelf life of a battery pack is around 900-1100 cycles, which means an average commuter in India would have to replace the battery pack every 3.5 to 4 years.

Since the battery pack itself costs around 30 to 35k, the depreciation value of a new EV is almost 25 to 30%/Annum, meaning there is negligible or no resale value. The only way to increase range is to increase the size of the battery pack, rendering it more expensive.

The alternative Solution:

Capitalizing on the vast existing market of around 60M+ and adding, we felt the easiest way to catalyze mass EV adoption is by designing and developing a universal electric propulsion kit that can convert almost any gearless IC engine to electric, with the following technical and business proposition. Hence, this is exactly what we spent almost 3.5 years on developing and patenting.

Starya Mobility- E2W Conversion Kit Details 

Starya developed its own state-of-the-art electric power train and plug-and-play electric propulsion kit that transforms IC Engine two-wheelers such as Activa, Access, and Dio into electric for less than half the cost of getting a new electric vehicle.  The Company recently became the first government-approved/ARAI Certified  Indian retrofitting company for their Electric propulsion kit (EPK) which includes in-house built components such as the motor and controller.

With the exception of a few components, everything else is created by Starya’s team. When it comes to creating, manufacturing, and quality testing items before distributing them to multiple networks, the organization provides a complete end-to-end service. Most importantly, after the conversion, the running costs are reduced to one-third of those of conventional IC engine scooters, resulting in a beneficial environmental impact.

Along with the aforementioned advances, Starya is also striving to open conversion facilities in all of India’s main metropolitan cities. Starya plans to gradually expand its conversion centers to include swapping stations that have grown organically across the locations where the company has a presence.  The Indian government has recently been proactive in granting significant incentives to electric vehicle manufacturers. Retrofit products, unfortunately, have yet to be subsidized. If the Indian government begins to provide subsidies for retrofit parts, Starya’s electric conversions will become even more affordable.

High-Performace EV Conversion Kit Technology

In terms of technology, the EPK(Electronic Propulsion Kit) includes a 5.5 kW PMSM motor with a 250 A FOC Controller, which can propel the vehicle to a  speed of 40 kilometers per hour in 3.7 seconds.

The maximum range per charge is 70+ kilometers. Aside from these benefits, Starya consumers don’t have to worry about their battery packs dying because the company reloads them on a subscription basis. The Starya subscription model starts at 75 paise per kilometer. The organization recognizes the hardship of the average person and seeks to balance performance with affordability.  As a result, Starya has a good impact on the environment by assisting in the reduction of the adverse effects of fossil fuels.

Cost of Electric Scooter Conversion?

Starya converts two-wheelers into electric Two Wheeler for as low as Rs. 35,000 without sacrificing any performance in terms of acceleration, speed, or mileage.

The business proposition to consumers

Convert your old scooter into an electric one and upgrade to the performance of a 1.6 Lakh electric scooter. The battery pack on subscription @ 75 Paise/Km, with a minimum recharge amount starting from 26 Rs. When the battery pack is dead, we will replace it at a highly subsidized cost of 8-9K In a short span of 8 months from our previous fundraising, we have been able to expedite the following

Engineered the product to be production-ready

Submitted Kit level for ARAI approval & expecting to receive kit level approval by this month-end and vehicle level by Mid-March. Converted 15 beta scooters and put them on road for endurance trials Set up a 5000 Sq Ft factory ready to manufacture up to 12000 Kits/Annum Started mild marketing for pre-booking trial rides and clocked 2000+ trial ride bookings in a month.

Opened up our converted scooters for trail rides to the public for a limited period from Nov 1st. Garnered 200 customers pre-booking at 100/- advance within 10-14 days, with very minimal marketing, and closed the pre-booking. Although we closed pre-bookings, customers are still taking trial rides and submitting their names to be contacted whenever the booking opens again. Started production of the first 50 Motors.