Understanding the current electric vehicle customer needs and creating an accessible, economical and an overall winning electric vehicle.

Assignment Taken

Prepare Product development plan; Decide on Features (USP’s) which will be present in the vehicle and how those features will help sales.

Case Understanding

The problem currently is a severely low rate of adoption of electric vehicles in India. The total number of registered vehicles in India is 230 Million and the market is growing continuously, but still a large portion of this market relies on fossil fuels. The government is targeting for 30% adoption of electric vehicles by 2030. This is difficult because India at present does not have the infrastructure to support a large-scale adoption of electric vehicles. My team has a corpus fund of Rs. 46 Lakhs and an additional Rs. 60 Lakhs can be borrowed from the bank. A bank borrowing will only make sense if we can develop a product that sells widely. The problem with adoption of electric vehicles is largely due to the lack of charging stations across the country. With a fund of Rs. 106 Lakhs, it is not really possible to create a network of charging stations. Hence, in this case, we will focus on developing a usable solution, that is both affordable and convenient to the user.

BCS Solution Summary

In our Product solution, we have first selected which market to target even among the electric vehicles. We select electric scooters for multiple reasons that I have listed in my solution. The reasons mentioned solidify the point that choosing an electric scooter can give us good returns in the short-term and long-term. Once we have identified the electric scooter, we select the features that we want to build in our scooter. These features are such that they make our scooter stand strong in the face of competitors’ products. We also have the USP of providing the maximum range of any scooter in the market. This will attract customers to us. Finally, once we select the features, we chalk out a high-level product development plan to ensure that our scooter project moves smoothly throughout the product development lifecycle – from requirements elicitation to sales, delivery and customer support.

Solution

We have electric vehicles for a wide range of uses. They are – two-wheeler scooters, two-wheeler motorcycles, three-wheeler passenger vehicles, three-wheeler cargo vehicles, four-wheeler passenger vehicles, four-wheeler cargo vehicles, and more than four-wheeled models.

We are selecting the two-wheeler market – electric two-wheeled scooters. There are a few reasons for it. Primary reason for us to build a two-wheeler is that the market has a greater demand for it. In India, majority of consumer vehicles belong to the two-wheeler category (78% of the market share). Second reason is two wheelers can be made at comparable rates to a fuel-based alternative. Creating a four-wheeler at comparable prices is difficult with the current technologies that we have. The four-wheeler electric vehicle will always be a little expensive. Third reason is that the government is providing several incentives for two-wheeler electric vehicle adoption. That helps the common man be able to afford a two-wheeler. Fourth reason is that the two-wheeler’s battery can be easily removed and carried to someone’s house and charged there. Which is why, it becomes super convenient for the user to switch to a two-wheeler electric option. Last reason is that a two-wheeler electric vehicle is largely used for daily commutes or travelling to nearby places. So, a person who buys an electric two-wheeler will likely not need a network of charging station in and around the city / state from where the customer belongs.

Now that we have stated the reasons why we decided on a two wheeled scooter, lets enumerate the features of the scooter that we will include which will help the sales of the scooter.

The scooter should have a removable battery. The scooter should have fast charging when connected to a charging point. It should have a charging time of less than 90 minutes. The scooter should have internet connectivity and the scooter should be able to connect with your phone to enjoy features like GPS navigation. The scooter should also have remote start and stop options. The phone will connect with the scooter through Bluetooth. The scooter should have Bluetooth 5.0 technology. It should have an anti-theft alarm. It should have several riding modes – Comfort, economy, and Sport modes. The brakes will be electric. The front suspension will be single fork while the rear would be a mono shock suspension. This will ensure maximum comfort to the passenger while keeping the vehicle economical.

The USP of the vehicle will be that it has a higher range than any of its competitors’ offerings. This will be provided by installing a bigger battery in the design. The bigger battery size will also increase the weight of the bike thus increasing the stability of the design.

Now that we have selected the features to be included, we must work out a product development plan. The product development plan will involve the following steps.

1. Identify Market Need

The first stage in creating a product is determining if there is a need for it in the market. By speaking with customers and taking on other research activities, such as test marketing and surveys, you should be able to tell if there is interest in your product and the problems that it will solve. This will cover all the primary and secondary research that the company conducts.

Since we are a smaller company, we will rely on primary researches by interviewing multiple people within a target city.

2. Analyze sales potential

Based on the features that our product is providing, analyze the target audience and estimate how many sales we can generate, what is the cost to the company, what kind of profits the company would make, what is the ROI and what is the breakeven point.

3. Build a concept

A concept would simply be an on-paper or in software design. Build a concept using the tools available to us. The concept should be completely well thought out in terms of the physics involved.

4. Build a prototype

Invest some resources and build a prototype based on the concepts thought about earlier.

5. Test and validate

Rigorously test and retest the prototypee to ensure that all the bugs and wrinkles with the product are sorted. Invite other professional drivers to test the product. Get feedback from them and incorporate their feedback in our concept refreshments.

6. Introduce prototypes to target market

Once the prototype has been tested and retested, we can introduce the prototype to a smaller target market. This will be a pilot project. We want to see how well customers receive the prototype.

7. Create a production plan

This will ideally start a little earlier, but basically we have to create a plan for how we will mass produce these bikes. If we need to scale up in terms of technology, that should be done at this stage.

8. Create distribution channels

Before announcing the scooter, have proper distribution channels ready.

9. Introduce scooter to the larger market

Launch the scooter in the wider market. Get bookings from the customers.

9. Assess customer feedback

Bring in refreshes to the scooter model based on the feedback provided by the customer.

Conclusion

In our solution, we have thus successfully identified the product that we want to target, the features that our product should include and the product development plan to build such a product. We believe that the electric scooter we develop using this plan has all the potential to capture a significant portion of the market. Since electric vehicles are the future, it is good to get a head-start on the revolution in the auto industry and thus ensure long-term returns.

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