Crowdfunded e-bike ready to rev

It has been designed and manufactured by a Coimbatore-based jute machinery technocrat

July 10, 2016 12:00 am | Updated 05:35 am IST - Bengaluru:

Manikandan and Ranganath Thota, founder and CEO, FuelADream.com, with the first crowd-funded electric bike, during its launch in Bengaluru on Friday.- Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Manikandan and Ranganath Thota, founder and CEO, FuelADream.com, with the first crowd-funded electric bike, during its launch in Bengaluru on Friday.- Photo: K. Murali Kumar

At first sight, the Spero looks like a normal bicycle with a few modifications. However, once you get on the bike, no pedalling is required.

Spero is an e-bike with a pedalling option. Its development has been completely crowd-funded; the developers raised Rs 9.5 lakh. The product was launched on Friday. It has been designed and manufactured by Manikandan, a Coimbatore-based jute machinery technocrat, who claims that the bike can reach speeds of 25 kilometres per hour under 10 seconds.

“My focus was on creating an environmentally-friendly bike, which can become an alternative mode of transport for urban populations,” he said.

It has been built with locally sourced materials wherever possible. The battery has been sourced from Samsung. The motor and tyres came from companies in South Korea.

The bike will be sold in three variants depending on the range per charge — 30, 60 and 100 kilometres.

Features include a detachable battery, which can be charged through a 5 ampere socket; charging from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in 4 hours as well as charging by pedalling.

“It has a unique cruise control feature, which lets you lock the speed of the bike,” a statement from FuelADream.com said.

Speaking about the crowdfunding process, Ranganath Thota, founder of FuelADream.com, said, “Mani is one of very few people who are working on this technology in India. We hope that more people will come forward and support this project.”

Features

Pedal to recharge battery

Single charge: 100 kilometres

Gears: 5

0-25 kilometres per hour in 10 seconds

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.