Cynosure, a subsidiary of the Mumbai-based Mobile Telecommunications, had launched the battery-operated two-wheeler, Yash Docile, last year. Cynosure''s present models, which do not require the Road Transport Authority (RTA) registration, are priced at Rs 29,500.

Zhejiling Changton is the largest manufacturer of ebikes in China , according to A.B. Vedmehta, chairman and managing director of Mobile Telecom.

Hyderabad-based Cynosure has set up an assembly chain to indigenise the battery-operated vehicles (ebikes), which will arrive in a CKD (completely knocked down) form from the Chinese company. The company is planning a manufacturing facility for batteries, the key component of the vehicle, at Hyderabad.

The company has set a second assembling unit at Jaipur (Rajasthan) and a third unit is coming up at Nashik (Maharastra). The company will also have nine assembling units across the country by the end of the current fiscal, said the company''s managing director Mandali Srinivasa Rao.

The plants, with capacity to assemble 3,000-5,000 vehicles per month, would involve investment of about Rs5-8 crore each. The expansion is proposed to be funded through internal accruals and other sources, Rao said.

Mr Rao said that in the first nine months, the eco-friendly Yash ebike logged sales of 6,000 units. The dealer network had been expanded to eight states and would spread further. The expected demand for electric vehicles in India in 2007-08 was around 1.5 lakh.

Though about 22 companies have so far applied for selling battery-powered vehicles, only a couple of them, including Ecobikes, is currently into electricity- powered bicycles and scooters in the country.