Hopefully this is the last post in the series of articles I have been writing on my quest for switching over to electric vehicle from a gasoline one. In the last post, I did a cost analysis of petrol vs electric scooter and with those calculations it did not make a lot of sense to buy an electric scooter. So the next thing I wanted to research was a cheaper low speed electric scooter. The one I was looking to research was Hero Electric Optima CX. It has a claimed range of 80 KMs and a top speed of 45 kmph. That speed may be reasonable for local driving which is pretty much what we use our gasoline scooter for.


While I was researching the topic, Rajiv who reads my blog and a virtual friend :) had some great inputs to share regarding his experience with Okinawa R30. So I thought I would add that to the mix. Please read his comments in my previous post to learn about his experience with an electric scooter.


Hero Electric Optima CX

Lets first start with the Hero Electric Optima. Ex-showroom price is about Rs. 62,000. Add insurance and registration and you can buy it for about Rs. 68,000. Since I don’t know anything about the quality of these scooters, I am excluding those aspects from my analysis. I am only looking at the cost of ownership as a way to compare it with a petrol scooter. So here is the cost of ownership compared with Honda Activa (although it falls in a different league):


Vehicle Activa 6G Hero Electric Optima
Price (after subsidy) Rs. 73,000 Rs. 62,000
Registration Rs. 10,000 Rs. 2,500
Insurance Rs. 6,000 Rs. 2,900
Total Rs. 89,000 Rs. 67,400


Right away it looks like EV is a better deal, but let us not forget the quality, features, comfort and performance offered by Honda Activa. Since the claimed range is 80 kms on a 1.5 KWh battery, the running cost comes to around Rs. 0.153/KM. I will assume the maintenance cost to be Rs. 2000 per year. I will also assume the battery will need to be replaced after 5 years. I will assume the battery cost to be around Rs. 25,000 based on the information I could find on the internet. I doubt I will be able to use the scooter for more than 10 years at best, so I will assume all costs based on that. Here is the final cost of ownership:


Vehicle Activa 6G Hero Electric Optima
Price (after subsidy) Rs. 73,000 Rs. 62,000
Registration Rs. 10,000 Rs. 2,500
Insurance Rs. 12,000 Rs. 6,000
Fuel Rs. 30,000 Rs. 2,500
Service Rs. 30,000 Rs. 20,000
Battery Nil Rs. 25,000
Total Rs. 1,15,000 Rs. 1,18,000


It still seems like a petrol vehicle will do better especially given that at the end of 10 years I can sell it as a used vehicle and get something out of it. I doubt the electric vehicle will be in a saleable state :). But all hope is not lost. If you drive more than 3000 KMs in a year, you will find the EV to be more cost efficient. Just that we don’t drive as much.


Okinawa R30

The thing about Okinawa R30 is that the top speed is only limited to 25 kmph which means two things. One, you don’t need registration, insurance or even driving license to drive it. Second, the FAME II subsidies do not apply to such vehicles. I am not sure if I can drive a vehicle that cannot go past 25 kmph. it is not that I need to go fast somewhere, but because there are some inclines here where I live and I am worried it will stall on the flyover. May be a test drive will clarify such doubts.


The claimed range of R30 is 60 KMs with a 1.34 KWH battery. So I will assume the cost of running is similar to Optima above. I will make the same assumptions as before regarding maintenance and battery replacement duration. The cost of battery might be lower at Rs. 20,000 given the smaller size. With those assumptions in place, here is the final cost of ownership:


Vehicle Activa 6G Okinawa R30
Price Rs. 73,000 Rs. 60,000
Registration Rs. 10,000 Nil
Insurance Rs. 12,000 Nil
Fuel Rs. 30,000 Rs. 2,500
Service Rs. 30,000 Rs. 20,000
Battery Nil Rs. 20,000
Total Rs. 1,15,000 Rs. 1,02,500


This is one EV that seems like it is better than a petrol vehicle finally! Even if I assume that I will get back something for selling the petrol vehicle, it might still be a breakeven deal. So for the number of KMs that I drive on a scooter per year which is about 1,500 KMs, the choice could be to go with Okinawa R30. Now, the only thing I need to figure out is if I can manage the 25 kmph speed limit without annoying the traffic :).