22Motors have tied up with scooter giant Kymco to become 22 Kymco. The new brand has launched three new premium scooters in India.
The newly-formed 22 Kymco have introduced three premium scooters – one electric, the iFlow, powered by Ionex battery packs, and two large-capacity petrol-powered scooters, the Like 200 and the X-Town 300i ABS. Apart from the new 22 Kymco scooters, the company plans to expand local manufacturing in India as well as invest in e-mobility ecosystems and build a charging infrastructure too.
All the new 22 Kymco scooters have been designed and developed for Indian road conditions. The iFlow, priced at Rs 90,000 (on-road) is an intelligent electric scooter that has an unrestricted range and battery life, powered by an Ionex battery. Every Ionex-powered scooter has a fixed internal core battery, as well as a removable one. When the removable battery is charging, the core battery is used to continue riding. Ionex e-scooters are designed with the industry’s first smart energy bay, and complemented by the extremely light five kg battery.
The iFlow generates 2.1 kW (2.9 PS) an estimated 20 Nm of torque and has a top speed of 60 km/h. Other features include disc brakes at the front and rear, a Combined Braking System (CBS), regenerative braking, tubeless tyres, Hill Assist, anti-theft and remote-sensing locking. The iFlow will also have three riding modes: Reverse, Cruise and Drag. The Drag mode allows the rider to drag his bike at a crawl speed of three km/h without the effort of manually pushing it along when there is a breakdown.
Overnight charging will now be even simpler for apartment residents, as 22 Kymco will launch the “Ionex Green Ready Community” project where energy-stations will be set up in public parking lots of residential buildings. The Ionex-powered iFlow e-scooter comes with a five-year core battery warranty and a 10-year power motor warranty. The scooters will also get a lifetime warranty on a personal rental battery. The basic riding mileage cost per 1,000 km is claimed to be as low as US $10 (Rs 700).
The scooter includes upgradeable hardware that will result in better customer satisfaction. The iFlow also has advanced cloud-connected technologies including geofencing, contact learning, daily battery use analysis, vehicle remote diagnostics, fleet management and daily alerts on road conditions, air quality, traffic etc. The e-scooter also uses AI to learn how a specific rider is using it, and uses the information to optimize the performance and life of the e-scooter.
The two new petrol scooters launched thanks to the 22Motors and Kymco partnership, are the Like 200 and the X-Town 300i ABS. The Like 200 will cost Rs 1.30 lakh (on-road). Though not showcased at the launch event, whose place was taken by a Like 150 for representation purposes, the upcoming Like 200 will be powered by a 163-cc, air-cooled, four-valve single-cylinder engine that gets a fuel injection system. It will be available around September this year.
The more powerful X-Town 300i ABS maxi-scooter will cost Rs 2.30 lakh (on-road). Of the many big names in the Indian scooter arena, none brought in a maxi-scooter above 150-cc, save for the retired Kinetic-SYM Blaze 165 and the massive Aprilia SRV850. It seems like 22 Kymco could well have a renewed first-mover advantage. The X-Town 300i ABS gets a 276-cc, liquid-cooled, two-valve OHC, fuel-injected single making 24.5 PS at 7,250 rpm and a peak torque of 25 Nm at 6,250 rpm. This model will have a large 260-mm front disc and 240-mm rear disc brake, with ABS. The big 300 packs a 12.5-litre fuel tank, large 120-section 14-inch front tyre and a larger 150-sec 13-inch rear tyre. It tips the scales at 181 kg (dry).
All new 22 Kymco scooters will be equipped with ‘Noodoe’ that is a navigation system panel. It gives real-time updates relating to traffic, turn-by-turn navigation and weather forecasts. This, in turn, helps the rider prepare better for their journey. The instrument panel can also be connected to all social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and receive notifications and messages.
The new 22 Kymco scooters will be available in six cities for now including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. The company is slowly expanding and plans to build a strong pan-India dealership network with 300 touch-points.
Story: Azaman Chothia
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