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After years of chasing premium and performance-focused buyers, EV startups are now setting their sights on the mass market. While EV startups initially built their propositions around consumers willing to pay a premium for longer range, connected features and differentiated riding experiences, that playbook has started to change. With electric two-wheelers moving deeper into the mainstream, manufacturers are increasingly looking beyond the early-adopter customer to the much larger pool of family and commuter buyers. Ola Electric and Ather Energy recently introduced more affordable, family-oriented scooters. Now, Bengaluru-based Simple Energy is joining the race with its new Wave range. Earlier this month, the union government halved the incentive for registered electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) to ₹2,500 per kWh of battery capacity, capped at ₹5,000 per vehicle from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028, compared to ₹5,000 per kWh, capped at ₹10,000 per vehicle, under the FY25 scheme. With policy support becoming more modest, affordability is emerging as an increasingly important lever for adoption, particularly as manufacturers look to expand beyond premium early adopters and tap the much larger commuter segment in India’s $30 Bn two-wheeler market. This is the segment that Simple is also going after. Launched at an introductory starting price of ₹1.10 Lakh (ex-showroom), the Simple Wave marks a significant expansion of the startup's portfolio, which was previously anchored by the performance-oriented Simple One. The new lineup comprises six models across three variants. Bookings have opened across Simple Energy's stores and website, with deliveries scheduled to begin in the last week of September. But the Wave is about more than adding another scooter to Simple Energy's portfolio. For the startup, it is a bet that the next leg of India's EV adoption will come from the mass market. From Performance To Family Scooters Simple Energy was founded in 2019 by Suhas Rajkumar and Shreshth Mishra, with Ankit Gupta later joining as a cofounder. Its first product, the Simple One, positioned the company around performance and long-range electric mobility. The Wave represents a deliberate broadening of that proposition. "We definitely want to scale up and become a part of the top five clubs. Hopefully, in the top three very soon, depending on how we scale from here," founder and CEO Rajkumar said. According to him, the family scooter is primarily about expanding Simple Energy's presence across India by giving consumers a more affordable entry point into its portfolio. "When you make an affordable offering, it scales up your production; it scales up your volumes.” The Wave models are intended to serve as an entry point for a larger mass audience. The shift comes at a time when the broader electric two-wheeler industry is also moving in the same direction. EV manufacturers are increasingly trying to compete for customers who would otherwise buy a conventional petrol scooter. Ola Electric recently launched the S1Z in two variants priced at ₹79,999 and ₹99,999, with IDC-certified ranges of 179 km and 301 km. The S1Z is also the company's first scooter range powered by its locally developed 46-series LFP Bharat Cell technology. Ather Energy, meanwhile, launched the Konarc family scooter at a starting price of ₹99,999. Built on the company's new EL platform, the Konarc is available in six variants across the S and Z product lines, with range options spanning 100 km to 200 km. For these players, as well as for Simple Energy, the new launches mean competing not just against each other and fellow EV startups but against the entrenched two-wheeler industry. Rajkumar explicitly spelt this out: "ICE products are definitely a competition. Our objective is to change the way people move from petrol to EVs. The competition is not about how we can price better or undercut the competition. It's more to do with how much more value we can give to the consumer at that price point." From 1,500 Scooters To 10,000 A Month The larger challenge for Simple Energy is not necessarily finding demand, but building enough capacity and distribution to capture the natural demand in the market for EVs. The company currently has manufacturing capacity of around 3,000 scooters a month and says it is selling roughly 1,500 units a month. It wants to take monthly sales and manufacturing to 10,000 units by March 2027. That would represent more than a six-fold increase from its current monthly sales run rate. Rajkumar believes the Wave can help unlock that growth, particularly as an affordable family scooter can tap into demand beyond the company's existing customer base. "The current tailwind of the industry kind of takes up a definite demand that is already there. And when you add a family scooter with a more affordable price tag, I think it only escalates that current demand as well," he said. Simple Energy also plans to substantially expand its retail footprint. The company currently has around 90 stores across 61 cities, and is targeting 160-170 outlets by March 2027. Importantly, these are dealer-operated outlets, rather than company-owned stores. This allows Simple Energy to expand its physical presence without taking on the entire capital burden of establishing and operating each outlet. While the company believes its existing network could potentially absorb significant additional demand, Rajkumar said the expansion is being undertaken conservatively to ensure that the retail network keeps pace with production and manufacturing capacity. At the moment, that is the bottleneck. Rajkumar said the company's 1,500-unit monthly sales are not primarily a result of weak demand or distribution constraints, but supply limitations. "It's more supply constraint, not distribution or demand. It's the manufacturing side of it. That's the most problematic piece for us today," the CEO said. This makes capacity expansion particularly important if Simple Energy is to deliver on its 10,000-unit monthly target on sales and manufacturing. The startup expects manufacturing capacity to reach 75-80% of this target by the end of the next financial year, from around 30% currently. The company also claims that around 95% of its components are localised, an important factor as EV manufacturers increasingly seek greater control over their supply chains and costs. Betting On Scale, While Costs Remain A Challenge The Wave's ₹1.10 Lakh introductory price is another important part of Simple Energy's strategy. The company has positioned the price as an introductory offer rather than necessarily a permanent price point. Yet despite the lower entry price, Rajkumar expects the Wave portfolio to generate a contribution margin of around 20-25% over the next eight to 12 months. That makes the economics of the mass-market push particularly important. Affordable scooters can potentially unlock significantly higher volumes, but they also leave less room for cost inefficiencies. And commodity inflation is already putting pressure on the sector. Rajkumar said commodity prices have increased sharply, with costs rising roughly 25-30% over the past two quarters, impacting margins across the industry. Achieving the contribution margin in this atmosphere will be a challenge, and it’s one that Simple has dealt with throughout its existence, as Rajkumar acknowledged. "Supply chain has always been a problem since 2020. Today, the margins have dropped significantly because of the commodity price increase," he said. This pressure can persist for at least another 12 months, although the company anticipates some easing after 18-24 months. In June, the startup raised ₹250 Cr through a mix of debt and equity. The capital is being deployed primarily towards manufacturing capacity and production expansion, with the balance earmarked for sales, marketing and R&D. The fundraise is also part of the company's broader ambition to transition into a full-stack electric vehicle OEM and eventually prepare for an IPO. The company reported revenue of around ₹171 Cr in FY26, as the founder claimed, up sharply from roughly ₹44 Cr in FY25. Rajkumar attributed the growth largely to the underlying demand for its products rather than any single growth lever. "For us, the demand is there. We just have to multiply our production," he said. That, in many ways, captures Simple Energy's immediate challenge. India's electric two-wheeler market is growing rapidly, but competition is becoming considerably broader. Vahan data showed electric two-wheeler registrations falling 16.2% month-on-month to 1.72 Lakh units in August, although registrations were still up 64% year-on-year. As Ola, Ather, Simple Energy and traditional automakers such as TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp push further into affordable EVs, the next phase of the market is likely to be less about convincing affluent early adopters and more about winning the everyday commuter. For Simple Energy, the Wave is therefore both a product launch and a scale test. If the company succeeds, it could move closer to the top-five in the market and eventually the top-three position that it is eyeing.
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