Reimagining the future of electric two-wheelers

In a world where electric vehicles often feel like stripped-down answers to sustainability, Ultraviolette is flipping the script. Their strategy? Don’t just electrify: elevate.

At the center of this transformation is Niraj Rajmohan, CTO and Co-founder, Ultraviolette, who’s leading a mission to build a two-wheeler experience that’s smarter, safer, and truly global. And this is no ordinary EV journey; it’s one deeply rooted in aerospace-level tech, meaningful connectivity, and user-first innovation built entirely out of India.

Engineering India’s first truly global two-wheeler tech brand

In terms of the brand in itself and in terms of Ultraviolette as a company, we always said and stood for building world-class tech in India, and it was not meant to be limited to India in any way or form. Today, our bikes have started to ship out to other parts of the world. We have bikes in Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and a few other European countries, and that reflects what we've been working on for the last eight years. We are working towards building a company that is building world-class products right out of here in India. Our benchmarks, in terms of other companies we look up to, are the likes of Sony, Dyson, Tesla, and Apple. That is the quality and scale that we want to get to in the mobility space right now.

Navigating affordability and performance in cost-sensitive markets

The core for us is whatever Ultraviolette is building, we are ahead in terms of technology, performance, and design. Those are three key pillars essential for us. We build these three capabilities without compromise and try to bring it at a price point that is very accessible to the market. Yes, India is a price-sensitive market, and because of that reason itself we started to work on the electric motorcycle technology. Our objective was to work backwards from a price that makes sense in India. Today, the 300 CC motorcycles are all priced in the same range, Rs. 2.5 to 4 lakh. Our first set of motorcycles was intended to be right in the middle of that segment. Our prices start at Rs. 2.99 lakh and Rs. 3.99 lakh, which is within the same space as the ICE motorcycles. The same applies to EV scooters, which we offer at a Rs. 1.2 lakh introductory price. We offer capabilities and performance that are 2X that of other EV scooters in the market. So, all of this has never been available, and we made it available at a price point that makes sense both for consumers and for us as well.

Software-defined vehicles: building beyond the ride

All of our two-wheelers are fully connected vehicles. They all have esim cards. The back-end systems are also developed by us. All of the data that is being transferred is not just for the purposes of data logging and connection but also to enable things for consumers which have never been done before. We have features like Violette AI, which is using all of the data that is being generated from the vehicles as well as offline capabilities; it goes beyond the vehicle operating system. The app will show the statistics in terms of how the person is riding their motorcycle, number of hours the bike is used, top speed, efficiency, kilometers traveled, amount of energy recovered, level of front brake, back brake usage, and much more. It's taking the experience of ownership of a vehicle beyond just the riding of the vehicle. This is done because of the remote diagnostics capabilities. We can identify problems even before a rider sees them. After-sales is more proactive. So, the capabilities enabled by the platform that we have built—all of this is done in-house.

OTA updates and regulatory intersections

When it comes to an automobile, there are different tiers and levels of types of updates. If it's a very simple theme-related update, we can do it very quickly and easily over the air. But when it comes to things related to performance or functionality of the vehicle, we have to go back to the regulatory authorities to get clearance for those firmware versions and only then plan out the firmware roll-out. Even the roll-out is done in a controlled manner because we have to educate the customers that this update is available. We did something that has never been done before in the industry when we announced traction control on our F77 Mach 2 motorcycles last year. We rolled it out as an update to all the previous-generation motorcycles also out there. Normally, functional features like that don't come as part of an OTA update; it is usually things that are made for efficiency improvements. This was a new capability that was added to the motorcycle, and the hardware already had the capabilities. We further made sure to make it backwards compatible with the previous-generation hardware and rolled it out as an OTA update with the necessary regulatory approvals in place.

Driving the transition: approaches to accelerating electric mobility adoption

It's not just making the transition to electric because it's electric. The whole experience of owning and operating an electric vehicle—and even the post-sales experience—is very different. It's way more advanced. We've seen that transition happen for laptops and phones. We've transitioned to some very fundamentally new capabilities that could have never been there with our landlines and desktops. Right now, that similar shift is happening on the electric vehicle side. Of course, it depends on what type of electric vehicle we are talking about, but the ones that are pushing the limits in terms of tech—similar to what Tesla is doing and some of the companies from North America and other parts of the world are doing in terms of ADAS features—we're doing something very similar on the two-wheeler front.

Battery strategy: modular flexibility vs. fixed practicality

We built capabilities early on also. When we first announced our motorcycles in pre-COVID times, December 2019, we actually unveiled our motorcycles with a modular battery architecture. We saw it as two things: one is as a technology, and second is as a business. The way that we always saw it was that swapping is a business decision, and the technology must enable it. The way we built our tech stack was like that. If we have to go down the path of swap or modular batteries kind of environment, we should have the capabilities to do that. So, we built the tech and even unveiled it. What we're seeing today in India is that the entire country for consumer EVs is going down the path of fixed batteries for various reasons. One is charging inside apartments is not easy. It still makes sense in India in some commercial applications where you want a vehicle where the price is very low, so you have to optimize on the size of the battery pack but you allow quick interchange. The downtime is lower; the vehicles are continuously in use. It's unlike that for consumer-owned vehicles where a lot of the time charging can be done at home or at the office or at different locations where range is more important. So, in different applications, there is room for both technologies, and we've built the capabilities for both. What we have now put into production is a fixed battery architecture.

Fixed battery systems will be sustainable in future in an environment essentially where the battery prices are reducing. There is another tricky part, which is the number of extra batteries in the system that will need to be accounted for. There are pros, cons, and benefits, but there is essentially a financial risk that is involved, as well as a counter to that in terms of a premium that is asked from the consumers. So, all of this has to be outweighed when you consider fixed versus swappable. On the fixed batteries, we have achieved something that is quite remarkable. The maximum warranty that we give with our pre-fixed batteries is up to 8 lakh kilometers and 8 years, which means that the battery packs are really meant to withstand any kind of usage so it retains its value as a vehicle and as an asset.

Target markets and expansion logic

For us, when it comes to motorcycles and scooters, the obvious large markets are India, North America, and Europe. The whole of Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Japan are also important, but those are more fragmented markets. Each country has its different mix of types of two-wheelers—scooters versus motorcycles. India is more 60% motorcycles, and the remaining is between scooters and mopeds. Europe is 50-50: 50% motorcycles and 50% scooters. North America is more motorcycle-focused. Then there is Latin America and parts of Asia where two-wheeler riding is a very cultural thing. What we are doing is we have interest from 190 different countries, and this is organic interest because we haven't done any marketing in these places. It's not going to be easy to scale to 190 countries. So, we will choose our markets where we have an ability to make a meaningful impact, and we will scale up in an organic manner—and that's what we've started doing now with the European launches.

In Europe and North America, four-wheeler EVs have managed to become mainstream. So, the infrastructure is actually quite well developed there. What was lacking were options when it came to two-wheelers. They were getting very low-cost, low-power options from certain Asian countries, but those were not meeting either the design requirements, performance requirements, or lifestyle requirements. That is the gap that we are filling in Europe with very high-quality vehicles. These are the same vehicles that we offer in India, built to the same standard, certified for global markets with the most stringent EU norms for a higher power requirement. That is what we offer today in Europe. North America is a larger land mass, and with certain changes that are happening from a geopolitical standpoint, we'll take that up next. Right now, Europe is our target.

Partnering across hardware and software layers

Essentially, we have been working with several technology partners. Some of them have become our investors as well. About two and a half years back, Qualcomm invested in Ultraviolette, and we have been working together for the connected chips and connected devices for almost five years. The capabilities on the cluster and dashboard are all enabled through Qualcomm devices. We also have a European partner, EXOR, and they invested through their entity called EXOR Capital. EXOR is the largest shareholder in Ferrari and in the Stellantis group. We've been working very closely with them on our European expansion plans as well. In India, Zoho is one of the investors. Zoho is one of India's largest privately held software companies, and they are proponents of Make in India. TVS Motors is also an investor in Ultraviolette. All of these companies come with different types of technology, brand, and market focus. So, we have collaborations with them at a very strategic level. Then there are collaborations with different companies on more of the subsystems and modules level, and we have a very diverse ecosystem of suppliers—about 150 different suppliers across India.

We use chips from different companies; we're not restricted to any one particular company. Whoever is interested in working on a more long-term approach, we are open and willing to work with them. Recently, we had a collaboration with NXP, a German company, and we use their chips as well. Qualcomm, NXP, Analog Devices, and Texas Instruments are some of the companies that we collaborate with.

Connected ecosystems and service feedback loops

So, the basics usually involve some level of “where's my vehicle,” “can I unlock it,” “lock it,” and “see what is the battery status.” Those are the standard features. What we have gone is way more than that with features like Violette AI and what we call our diagnostic features, where we're able to predict the behavior of the vehicle or any changes to the vehicle much before, and we're also able to give suggestions on how you can further extend the life cycle of your vehicle and improve your riding experience with some of these capabilities. This keeps getting updated over time. We have navigation that enables users to plan out their route and trips. We provide a view of the charging stations and their availability. So, all of this is enabled as a combination of your vehicle capabilities as well as everything being connected. Our charging stations also have SIM cards. They are also connected, and we can see the live status of each one of them. It's also monitoring and improving quality over time as well.

Cybersecurity and firmware integrity

The first part of it is actually what level of control you give through the online channels. For example, on the motorcycle, anything that has to do with throttle or the riding modes is not given any sort of digital access; it is limited to the physical rider and the person itself. So, there is a clear separation in terms of what capabilities are given to an online platform. The second, in terms of capabilities, is that which firmware is allowed to run on the vehicle—and can you update a firmware only if the signing process is complete—which means that you cannot run an unauthorized firmware on the vehicle or any subsystem. The third is data that has been transferred from the motorcycle to a server. Both the data at rest and in motion is always encrypted in various forms. There is a certain level of clear distinction in terms of personally identifiable information versus data that is not personally identifiable, and we have to do all of this because we also have EU regulation norms to meet GDPR requirements. There is also now regulation at a draft stage regarding cybersecurity norms in terms of what is possible, and how is it documented, tracked, authenticated, and how is there clear transparency into the entire connected journey of a vehicle.

Advanced rider assistance in two-wheelers

With the newer vehicles, what we've started to introduce is capabilities that we call closer to ADAS functions. It's not autonomously driving the vehicle for you, but it is improving your riding experience by augmenting your capabilities. For example, on a two-wheeler, you don't get features like blind spot detection. It's available in high-end cars, but it's now available on our scooter because we have two radars and two cameras. We have a full view of your surrounding environment, and we're able to give you better situational awareness. It is also able to do things like reverse blind spot detection, which means that you are in someone else's blind spot. Then we have autonomous anticipatory braking that we're working on, which is very advanced and either available or not available in even the four-wheelers that are out there. So, these are some of the functional aspects of it. Then there are the more connectivity, service, after-sales, and charging-related capabilities that we offer.

Augmentation over automation

It will split into two pathways. One is the very autonomous journey, where your day-to-day transit will get covered in some form of autonomous movement in about the next 10–15 years, where that becomes the norm. It's economical, it's viable, and the focus will be on your transportation experience. So, that's the direction where the industry is going. The other side is where you have more control on your vehicle, where it becomes about freedom, which is always what motorcycling was about. It's a sense of freedom, a sense of autonomy for the rider but with additional capabilities for added safety. For example, what we've done with the scooter and with the motorcycles is, there's a lot of aerospace-inspired technology coming into automotive applications—like the capabilities that pilots have in terms of situational awareness. My surrounding environment: there are things that are happening which I should be aware of without being distracted and able to control a vehicle with minimal cognitive overload. So, these kinds of things can be detected, and we are able to warn the person in advance. That adds to the capabilities and augments the human driving experience. So, at least from our point of view, it will go in these two directions, and they will both coexist in the market.

The evolving role of the CTO

My interest has always personally been to bring cutting-edge technology that is out there, try and find a way to commercialize it, and to bring it in a meaningful form. Bringing cutting-edge technology to market is part of the brand strategy as well. There are other pillars to the brand strategy on the performance and design side, which is to bring the vehicles in a form and fashion that are enviable to own.

Shifts in the global and regional two-wheeler landscape

The transition to electric is pretty evident. It has already started to happen. We have seen it happen in cars. Debates around how rapid that transition will be will continue to be debated. What is undeniable is that the transition is accelerating, whether you see India, Europe, or anywhere else in the world. It has happened for four-wheelers, and we are on the cusp of witnessing the same thing for two-wheelers. So, it's only a matter of time before you start to see every second or third vehicle on the road becoming electric—and we are part of that journey.

Balancing speed and substance: first-mover advantage vs. long-term product excellence

We don't necessarily always build to offer the least-cost vehicles. If we go down that path, then we automatically eliminate choices that are new and cutting-edge. For example, if we were to do that with the radar, we would never have introduced it because no one else has done it on a vehicle that is priced anywhere around Rs. 1 lakh or Rs. 2 lakh. Our objective is to take cutting-edge technology and find a way to make it meaningfully viable for a mass production use case. That is how we approach it. So, our first pillar will always be: let's bring something that is revolutionary and new to market. We'll figure out a way to make it work economically and financially.

Author: Shipra Sinha, Senior Analyst- Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR)