Indian electric motorcycle maker Ultraviolette Automotive plans to invest ₹779 crore ($81.93 million) in a new plant in the southern part of the country to expand manufacturing capacity and support its entry into the mass-market segment.
Concerns over the compatibility of older petrol vehicles with E20 fuel are helping drive demand for electric two-wheelers in India, where their sales, according to government data, topped 1.03 million units in the first eight months of 2026.
The facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu will begin with an annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles and can be expanded to 500,000 units as demand rises, founders of the company, backed by Qualcomm and TVS Motor, told Reuters.
The plant will complement the startup’s existing facility near Bengaluru, which can produce up to 50,000 units annually.
Consulting firm McKinsey estimates electric two-wheeler adoption to reach 40 per cent to 45 per cent by fiscal year 2030. Their share of overall two-wheeler sales crossed 10 per cent for the first time in August 2026.
“The demand we have for our products, including what is coming up next with the Tesseract and the Shockwave, is far more than the current facility can cater to,” Ultraviolette co-founder and CEO Narayan Subramaniam told Reuters.
Known for premium electric motorcycles such as the F77 and X47, Ultraviolette plans to launch its Shockwave motorcycle for under ₹2,00,000 and the Tesseract scooter for below ₹1,50,000.
The company expects underlying domestic demand for its scooters of at least 10,000 units a month, Subramaniam said, a level that could put it in contention with larger electric two-wheeler makers, including Ola Electric and Ather Energy.
The investment, to be made over the next five years, will be funded through internal reserves, equity and future cash flows, with limited use of debt, CTO Niraj Rajmohan said.
Hosur was selected partly for its proximity to Ultraviolette’s Bengaluru research and development centre and its access to an automotive supply chain, Rajmohan said.
Ultraviolette sold more than 3,000 electric motorcycles globally in the first half of the year, compared with about 1,756 units for Zero Motorcycles and about 300 for Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire, it said.
Exports to Europe and Latin America, according to Subramaniam, account for about 15 per cent of sales and could rise to 25 per cent within five years.
