Kwang Yang Motor Co (光陽工業), the nation’s largest manufacturer of gasoline-powered scooters, yesterday said it plans to make inroads into India’s electric scooter market by teaming up with local partners, in an effort to accelerate its overseas expansion.
India is a “brand new” market for Kwang Yang, said the company, which already covers 108 markets worldwide, where it has sales networks to sell gasoline-powered scooters under the KYMCO brand.
“India is a special market. We have to redesign our products to cater to local consumers,” Kwang Yang chairman Allen Ko (柯勝峰) told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of new electric scooters targeting enterprise customers.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
“India is a market with great growth potential, as its electric scooter market is still in the nascent stage of development,” Ko said.
It is the world’s largest two-wheel vehicle market, with annual sales of 20 million units, Ko said.
The Indian government is offering good incentives to encourage people to switch to electric models and plans to ban the sales and manufacturing of gasoline-powered scooters by 2030, he said.
However, India is also a highly competitive market: Kwang Yang has to compete with five or six established electric-vehicle vendors to vie for a share of that pie, Ko said.
“It is important to leverage local partners’ strength to succeed” in this market, Ko said.
Kwang Yang is to collaborate with local partners to manufacture and sell electric scooters in the world’s second-most populous country, he said.
He declined to disclose details about its Indian partnerships before a media briefing that is to take place in New Delhi next week.
The company’s latest move follows its success in China, where the market for electric scooters is booming.
Kwang Yang late last month forged a partnership with Alibaba Group Holding (阿里巴巴) to provide its food delivery subsidiary with electric scooters.
Since July, Alibaba’s Hema Fresh (盒馬鮮生) has put its food delivery workers on Kwang Yang’s electric two-wheelers on the streets to send all sorts of foods, such as seafood and vegetables, to customers in a quicker and more environmentally friendly way.
Hema purchased 300 electric scooters at one delivery point for trial and is in talks with Kwang Yang to deploy more units at a second delivery point.
Kwang Yang also supplies electric scooters and batteries to a Chinese electric battery supplier and is working with Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces to assist them in solving mass transportation problems, Ko said.
In Taiwan, it is in talks with potential customers, including Pizza Hut and Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政), to supply them with electric vehicles, the company said.
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