Bhubaneswar: Did you know that there are more than 200 million electric cycles/bikes in China with 30 million a year being sold? India is nowhere near that. Rupaj Kumar Panda, a native of Bhanjanagar, has developed an electric cycle with the hope to revolutionize daily transport here.
Panda has showcased two of his products at the ongoing Odisha MSME International Trade Fair 2020 here. He hopes to reduce air pollution and fuel costs with his cycles. He believes electric cycles will soon become popular here as they have in other developed countries.
One of Panda’s e-cycle can run up to 40 km on a 3-hour charge and the other can run up to 20 km on a 2-hour charge. Powering his cycle is a 250W motor and a 10Ah battery. There is a pedal too for people to use if they run out of charge.
There is also a provision for an extra back-up battery which can be replaced with the used one to provide more range.
The e-cycles are priced between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000 in Bhubaneswar.
Panda said that the cost of charging the battery is just Rs 2.
His start-up has already partnered with ITI Bhubaneswar to train students and start manufacturing here.
