Watt Wagons Takes E-Bikes to a New Frontier

It began with wanting to unravel a commuting drawback that prompted Pushkar Phatak to develop his personal e-bike and its design turned a dialog subject when he rode it to work. Many individuals who noticed his bike requested if he might additionally make one for them, and that was how Pushkar realised the potential of his e-bike. Collectively along with his faculty pal Amit Sondhit, they went on to ascertain an organization the place promoting these e-bikes turned their newfound ardour.

Forward, Amit shares with us extra about Watt Wagons, its bikes and the way they set a brand new Guiness World Document.

You’re based mostly in Boston, US. Inform us in regards to the superb progress of Watt Wagons e-Bikes.

Like quite a lot of start-ups, we began out of a storage constructing bikes with our personal arms. Over the course of three years, we’re a well-established model within the high-performance section. We have now moved to an 8,000 sqft institution and employed staff to construct and repair electrical bikes. We have now additionally began a 5-star rated e-bike service firm “ebike.rehab” to “heal” electrical bikes, construct relationships, upsell, and additional the fervour for driving. We have now been worthwhile for 2 years now and are engaged on new applied sciences that will likely be recreation changers within the rider ecosystem. Ranging from one product, we now have a portfolio of various bikes catering to all kinds of use circumstances. We’re multiplying final yr’s gross sales!

How did the concept of manufacturing luxurious e-bikes come to Pushkar Phatak, the founding father of the corporate?

Pushkar constructed his first e-bike to unravel his commuting drawback. He realised he was onto one thing when somebody at a site visitors cease requested him about his bike and whether or not he might construct the identical for them. Toying round with concepts, he simply noticed that whereas there have been so many merchandise available in the market, there have been hardly any that certified as dependable, severe or, in some circumstances, simply plain purposeful. He went to the whiteboard and out got here some extremely profitable works of pure engineering!

He based Watt Wagons and received engaged on securing design and vendor relationships after getting nice suggestions from quite a lot of fanatics! He went for the holy grail to show the reliability of Watt Wagons — a Guinness World Document! In fact, together with kudos, it resulted in lots of issues to work on to increase Watt Wagons.

I’ve been Pushkar’s pal since undergrad, and had been working with him on a bunch of different issues, together with one other firm, once we determined to collaborate and take Watt Wagons to the following stage. The corporate moved to a a lot greater workshop from a storage and out got here the brand new state-of-the-art merchandise, new web site and model technique, NHL participant endorsements and media protection.

Are you able to title a couple of of the early backers of Watt Wagons?

Watt Wagons is organically funded by us however we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge a number of the early backers who put their religion in us and positioned orders for a number of the finest e-bikes on the earth. There have been quite a lot of our loyal clients who believed in us from the start and ordered based mostly on our superior ideas. Their orders helped us construct our basis and helped in scaling up.

What are the important thing propositions of Watt Wagons e-bikes? How modern and “clever” is the engineering behind these bikes?

We give attention to defining the expertise of the longer term. After we began, we have been the primary to introduce excessive powered titanium commuter e-bike with belt drive, the one which we used to set a brand new Guinness World Document. The subsequent era of our e-bikes boasts ultra-light carbon fibre frames with top-of-the-line parts and full suspension functionality. We even provide inside gear hubs to cut back upkeep. We modify the motors with our superior controllers to make them extra dependable, environment friendly and enjoyable. Our newest product, the Hound, is the one journey e-bike platform that provides onboard charging — you should use an EV charging station similar to your electrical automobile!

In the summertime of 2019, Watt Wagons travelled to Halifax with rider Ravi Kempaiah to set a brand new Guinness world report. Are you able to inform us extra there?

In the summertime of 2019, Watt Wagons travelled to Halifax NS with rider Ravi Kempaiah to set a brand new Guinness world report on the Final Commuter Professional e-Bike (Now Helios). Our e-bike accomplished 400 miles in 24 hours utilizing beneath a greenback of electrical energy. We have been flagged off by Prof. Dahn, head of battery analysis for Tesla. We have been lined on Canadian and US information channels.

You’re bullish in regards to the progress of the e-bike market, which numbers and analysis papers do you’ve got readily available which maintain your imaginative and prescient?

We usually observe analysis papers from completely different consulting/information organisations (like McKinsey and Forbes) and on-line information from completely different retailers (like Electrek) which might be targeted on electrical autos normally.

How do you outline sustainability? How modern is your imaginative and prescient and the measurement instruments you’ve got put in place there?

Our seriousness about sustainability is what led us right here to start with. We need to rework commuting by means of extra environmentally sustainable options wherever potential. Our imaginative and prescient is to switch a serious a part of vehicle site visitors with a extra sustainable and more healthy different. Subsequently, we targeted on constructing merchandise which might be dependable for 1000’s of miles and wish minimal upkeep to create true automotive-grade replacements for fuel autos. Each mile ridden on our e-bike is greener and cheaper than conventional fuel transportation. Moreover, we’re additionally one of many largest recyclers in our metropolis and have interaction with the native governments to help with the messaging, merchandise and driving change.

Watt Wagons has been a worthwhile firm for the previous three years. Are you aiming for an IPO quickly? The place do you see the corporate in 5 yr time?

We consider we’ve got some methods to go earlier than we take into account an IPO. There are particular merchandise in our pipeline that we need to see to fruition earlier than we resolve to go public. We recognise that we’re nonetheless a smaller participant and need to set up ourselves because the de facto leaders in our house with a broader gamut of merchandise earlier than going public.

The place ought to our LUXUO readers go to purchase a Watt Wagons e-bike? Who’re your resellers? Do you additionally promote on-line?

We ship worldwide and have lately began onboarding sellers as properly. LUXUO readers can purchase our merchandise on-line and be a part of our different clients from 25+ international locations. If , they’ll additionally contact us to change into resellers.

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