Ultraviolette F77 electric bike to launch in mid-2021 – Report

Ultraviolette Automotive’s Ultraviolette F77 electric bike, according to a new media report, is to launch in mid-2021. The TVS Motor Company-backed electric bike startup that is based in Bengaluru plans to raise capital to help it get the product in the market.

Sources in the know-how of the startup’s business plan tell livemint.com that the company is planning to draw investments of up to $75 million across Series B and C rounds. It plans to use the additional funds in starting production of the Ultraviolette electric bike prototypes over the next three quarters (by Q3 2020), expanding operations, recruiting more employees and doing R&D of Lithium-ion technology.

Last month, Ultraviolette Automotive had announced that TVS Motor Company made an additional investment of INR 30 crore in its business. The company had slipped in news on the development of its first electric motorcycle, the Ultraviolette F77, in the announcement.

Ultraviolette F77 - 10 electric motorcycles to be launched in India
The range of the Ultraviolette F77 is 150 km. It is priced between Rs 3 lakh and 3.25 lakh (on-road). Remote diagnostics over-the-air (OTA) upgrades, regenerative braking, ride modes, bike tracking and ride diagnostics are some of the bike’s features.

In April 2020, Ultraviolette Automotive was on track to launch the Ultraviolette F77 in late 2020 but the coronavirus outbreak has not been kind on the automotive industry as a whole. The aviation themed electric bike debuted in November 2019 and the original schedule was to begin deliveries from around October 2020. Last month, though, the Bengaluru-based company had confirmed that the launch was pushed to 2021 and that the availability of the Ultraviolette F77 will expand in phases.

The Livemint report gives a more accurate release date, saying that the Ultraviolette F77 launch will take place in the middle of next year (May-August 2021).

Previously, Niraj Rajmohan, the Founder and CTO of Ultraviolette Automotive, had said that the company has received an overwhelming response for the F77. The company has spent the last few months working on critical design and technology improvements of the upcoming electric bike.

Ultraviolette F77 – Range, Features & other specifications

Ultraviolette Automotive will set up a charging network of its own first in Bangalore and across the country soon after. The Ultraviolette F77 is powered by a three-piece modular battery pack that has a total capacity of 4.2 kWh that offer a range of up to 150 km in a single charge. The batteries are portable and weigh around 8.5 kg each.

With a standard charger, the batteries can be taken to 80% in 3 hours and to 100% in five hours. The same can be done with a fast charger in 50 minutes and 90 minutes respectively. The electric motor makes a maximum power of 25 kW (33.5 hp) and a peak torque of 450 Nm at the wheel. The F77 can go from 0 to 60 km/h in 2.9 seconds, 0 to 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds and a maximum speed of 147 km/h.

The Ultraviolette F77 gets three riding modes – Eco, Sport and Insane mode, and we can guess the role of each mode by the name. The electric motorcycle also has a park assist reverse function that should help to take the 158 kg motorcycle out of the parking spot easier. The bike is built on a steel trellis frame with an aluminium bulkhead and gets inverted forks to the front and a 12 mm piston with adjustable spring at the rear. Fitted with a 320 mm disc brake to the front and 230 mm disc to the rear, the F77 also gets dual-channel ABS as standard.

What are the features of the Ultraviolette F77?

Features of Ultraviolette F77 include all LED lights, NFC, Bluetooth and LTE connectivity, variable regenerative braking and USB phone charging.

What is the price of the Ultraviolette F77?

The electric bike comes in three variants – F77 Lightning, F77 Shadow & F77 Laser, priced between Rs 3 lakh and 3.25 lakh (on-road).

What is the range of the F77?

The electric motorcycle has a company-claimed max range of 150 km.

There’s also an exclusive app for accessing the F77’s data and information including GPS positioning, ride history, geofencing, vehicle locator, active tracking, charge status of each battery module etc.