Classic Legend, maker of Jawa, waiting for charging platforms to roll out heavy e-bikes

Classic Legends, which designs, manufactures and sells classic motorcycle brands - Jawa, Yezdi and BSA, is working on electric bikes and will introduce it in the Indian market when the charging infrastructure is ready, according to company CEO Ashish Singh Joshi.

While the current charging infrastructure has the ability to support entry-level electric scooters or motorcycles with 50-100 km of range, for performance and intercity bikes it is not yet ready, he said.

"We looked at electric at the start and we started developing our electric product. We have a grant from the British government at our tech centre at Coventry to do electric products in BSA. We are working on our electric programme there," Joshi said.

The Mahindra & Mahindra-backed firm had brought back the Czech motorcycle brand Jawa in 2018 and followed it up with Yezdi in 2022. Before that in 2016, it had also acquired the British motorcycle brand BSA.

When asked if the company was planning to enter the electric bike segment anytime soon, Joshi said, "As India moves along on the infrastructure side, we will take a call on when do we want to bring our electric products. Infrastructure is very much needed."

Elaborating, he said at present the charging infrastructure has the ability to support entry-level electric scooters or motorcycles with 50-100 km of range. The average usage of a scooter or a commuter motorcycle is 50-60 km, which can be charged at home or office.

However, for premium products with 300 km or 400 km of range with occasional usage, availability of charging stations is a concern.

"Also motorcycles in our category will have higher battery capacities as well," he said adding, the availability of higher voltage charging stations is also an issue.

For the kind of products that the company sells, he said, "Every biker's bike dream is to ride these bikes in intercity or take them into the mountains or desert as well. As soon as infrastructure starts getting there, electric motorcycles of our kind will become a reality."

When asked out of the three brands, which one would the company introduce the electric version, Joshi said, "All of our brands are capable of handling electrics. From an architecture point of view I don't see any reason why we couldn't do it in any of our three brands. We have not taken a call on what brand that we would go with."

On an optimistic note, he said the way India is moving on infrastructure at a breakneck speed, getting charging infrastructure on the highways soon looks positive.