Premium Electric Motorcycle Startup, Raptee opens its first manufacturing plant in Chennai
Premium EV Motorcycle Startup, Raptee has opened their first factory for manufacturing EV motorcycles to be rolled out later this year. The factory, which is opened in Chennai, is spread across 3 acres and will house a majority of Raptee's Research and Development team in the same campus.
Raptee plans to invest Rs 85 crore in this plant which will have an annual capacity of 1 Lakh units and will serve as the primary production plant for Raptee for the next 24 months. The Company plans to employ 470 people for the manufacturing and further design innovation in their highly awaited motorcycles. The R&D center will house state of the art development and testing facilities on-site and will aid in future products while the manufacturing plant will house a dedicated battery pack assembly line.
Speaking about the newly setup plant, Dinesh Arjun, Co-founder CEO, Raptee, Says "This is a huge leap forward for us. We are at an inflection point where we move from a small R&D outfit to becoming a full blown OEM and we've identified the perfect property to maintain the balance for the years to come. We've been very particular about having the R&D and Manufacturing teams in the same campus to improve collaborations in this extremely crucial period for the company and that meant the entire property will need to be inside the City. This facility ticks all those boxes and will help service our customers better."
The centrally located property was inaugurated by Mr. Shaji Koshy, Former Sr.Vice president at Royal Enfield and an advisor to Raptee. Commenting on the factory opening, Shaji Koshy, Former Senior VP, Royal Enfield, says, "I am extremely happy that such young minds from Chennai have been able to develop a remarkable product and I really want to support this team who has a potential to create a big impact in the EV landscape in India and Globally. Its an honour and happy moment for me to be inaugurating the new facility for Raptee, which is now moving from their small R&D centre to a full fledged OEM facility and I wish they run out of capacity very soon in this facility."
Jayapradeep Vasudevan (JP), Chief Business Officer, Raptee, Says, "This move is a big motivation for the entire team at Raptee as the new facility houses a dedicated block for the Admin and R&D, which provides a much better working ambience for our team to enjoy and contribute to the growth journey of Raptee. This facility is big enough to cater to the growing size of our team for the next two years. From a manufacturing capacity standpoint, it also gives us enough flexibility to meet the customer demand from the time of launch. The fact that the families of our team attended the inauguration reiterates the commitment of our team and their families' support towards the success of Raptee. At this moment, as a team we are really happy and proud that we are progressing towards delivering a world class EV motorcycle and customer experience to become a Premium EV brand."
Early this year Raptee received a grant of Rs 3.27 crore from the Automotive Research Association of India, a leading R&D organization set up by the automotive industry and Govt of India. The grant was given under AMTIFs (Advance Mobility Transformation & Innovation Foundation) Industry Accelerator program as a part of the Capital Goods Scheme by the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. The MOU's were exchanged in the presence of Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, Hon'ble Minister of Heavy Industries, Government of India.