Okinawa eyes nearly ₹500 cr revenue this fiscal

Leading electric scooter manufacturer Okinawa Autotech aims to sell around 1 lakh units as well as triple its annual revenue to nearly ₹500 crore in the current fiscal.

The Gurugram-based company, founded and owned by Jeetender Sharma, has sold 30,930 units, almost 70 per cent of them high-speed scooters (over 60 km speed per hour) in FY21 and had ₹155 crore in topline, making it the market leader in the segment. However, the volume was lower by over 1,100 units from its FY20 sales due to the pandemic.

Despite the raging second wave of the pandemic, the company is on course to commission its new production line at Alwar in Rajasthan to augment capacity to 5 lakh units from 90,000 units per annum now, Sharma, who is the company's managing director, said.

The company aims to sell 1 lakh units as well as have a revenue of around ₹500 crore in the current fiscal, Sharma told PTI.

To meet the sales target, the company will ramp up its dealerships to 500 by the end of this fiscal from 340 now.

According to Sharma, the e-scooter/ bikes industry had sold 1.75-2 lakh units in FY21, up from 1.6 lakh units in FY20, mostly led by slow speed models that control around 65 per cent of the industry volume.

The numbers are not official as there are many newcomers in the slow-speed (below 40 km speed per hour) segment who do not report numbers and these models need not be registered, he added.

Asked about the high volume/ revenue target, Sharma said his optimism comes from the massive jump in petrol prices coupled with the pandemic which has generated a lot of demand for personal mobility, which is visible from rising online booking now.

In the first quarter of FY21, the company had absolutely no sales. "But this year in April-May, despite the lockdownswe've 500 orders pending for delivery, which indicates consumer sentiment as the pandemic is nudging people to go for own commute," he noted.

Sharma said the company will invest ₹150 crore during this financial year to grow its product portfolio and on-ground footprint. It is also launching two new high-speed models this year.

Okinawa, named after the eponymous Japanese city known for its very high life expectancy of 100-plus, has a portfolio of six electric scooters priced at ₹50,000-1.14 lakh. Its slow-speed models are Okinawa R30, Lite, and Dual and the high-speed ones are Ridge , PraisePro, and iPraise.