Canopus Launching Four Electric Scooters In India

Last Updated on February 18, 2022 by Anu Joy

Electric motorcycles and electric scooters are playing a huge role in the transition to EVs in India. Motorcycles and scooters usually are ridden within city limits and thereby seem to be a more viable option than electric cars for now. More and more new startups and existing brands are focusing on the electric two-wheeler segment in India. Now, a new brand called ‘Canopus’ has popped up and wants a piece of this category, currently enjoyed by Ather, Ola, Bajaj, Hero Electric, and the likes. Canopus is a joint venture between UK-based SRAM & MRAM and ATD Group of India. Apparently, they have named it after the second brightest star in the night sky called ‘Canopus’, which has a luminosity 10,000 times more than the Sun. 

The group has plans of investing about 100 crores in the development of new EV vehicles in the country. Kickstarting its scooter business, the Canopus brand will launch four electric scooters named Aurora, Scarlett, Colette, and Valeria in India. The prototypes of these vehicles are production-ready and are expected to be in the market by March 2022. Canopus electric scooters will use patented German and Korean CAMIVT tech for their transmission. The motor will be controlled by an FOC controller. The company says they have used energy systems inspired by Korean wind power technology, for use in the scooters, which are said to provide a good driving range.   

Canopus claims its electric scooters will run at a cost of 20 paise per kilometre, which is significantly cheaper than the ₹2 per km running of petrol-powered scooters. The scooters will take 4 to 5 hours to charge initially, but the brand will adopt a new charging tech that will have the ability to charge to 80 percent in just 30 minutes. If needed, there will be an option of replacing or swapping the battery at its appointed dealers or service centres. 

Canopus scooters will utilise IoT-based telematics to gather data and improve on certain aspects of the vehicle. The scooters will carry retro designs but will wear LED headlamps and tail lamps. One model even has cool-looking RGB daytime running lights in the headlight. The scooters will sport a smart TFT dashboard that will display key information such as battery remaining, riding modes, driving statistics, and more. They will be embedded with security features such as geofencing, GPS tracking, SOS, and roadside assistance. 

Canopus has established an R&D centre at Ahmedabad, Gujarat, while the production setup is in Rajasthan. The brand states that from April 2022 onwards the scooters will be 99 percent locally manufactured. Canopus will also be providing easy finance solutions from its partner ATD Finance across the country.