River Mobility on Expansion Drive: Targets 100 Stores by March
Bengaluru-based electric vehicle startup River Mobility hastens growth plans. Backed by titans of the industry like Yamaha Motor Corp and Mitsui & Company Ltd, it eyes a pan-India presence.
Under its expansion plan, River Mobility has opened its first showroom in Chennai and is looking to bring it up to 15 more by November this year. Having held the vision for an aggressive growth plan, the company aspires to go up to 50 stores by March 2025 and total 100 showrooms by March 2026.
It’s on this note that the CEO and Co-founder, Aravind Mani, sounded very excited about the Chennai store, underlining the city’s emergence as a fast-growing EV market and their strong bonding with the region. The Chennai store will be its first company-owned store and thereby will mark the beginning of River Mobility’s journey in dominating the Indian EV scene.
River Mobility Expands Footprint in Tamil Nadu
River Mobility is making strong inroads into Tamil Nadu. As many as three retail showrooms are planned to be set up across different parts of the state in the next one year. After its inaugural store in Chennai, Coimbatore will turn out to be the second city in the state to get a River Mobility showroom. The company is eyeing a minimum of four stores in Chennai in the next twelve months.
Since March 2021, when it began operations, River Mobility has seen aggressive growth. In October 2023, the company launched its all-new range of scooters called “Indie” and the sales so far have been impressive, crossing 1,500. Its momentum can be gauged from the kind of sales notched up in the previous month, wherein it sold about 400 vehicles.
A Strong Foundation for Growth
River Mobility is currently expanding its operations vigorously backed by strong finances and workforce. The company has raised around Rs 550 crore in funding with key investors being international and is led by Yamaha Motor Corp. Other top investors include Toyota Ventures and Mitsui & Company Ltd.
River Mobility has a well-built infrastructure with almost 750 employees. The company has set up its research and development centre in Whitefield, Bengaluru, and the assembly factory in Hoskote. It has about 400 engineers in the manufacturing facility.
River Mobility currently has three stores: two in Bengaluru and one in Hyderabad. The Chennai store is the company’s fourth outlet and its second outside Karnataka. It has a dedicated plan for expansion to 15 stores by November 2024, 50 by March 2025, and 100 by March 2026. The company currently has just one product, an “Indie” scooter, which costs Rs 1.47 lakh in Chennai. How far this product diversification will go toward customer segments is something that people will watch when the firm builds its network.
River Mobility Expands Product Line and Boosts Production
River Mobility readies the introduction of a new model at the beginning of 2026, extending further its product offering. This is in line with the company’s strategic direction toward a broader customer market in the electric mobility market segment.
Company Strategy The company’s manufacturing facility is located in Hoskote, near Bengaluru, and it is focused on assembling battery packs with a capacity of, about 1 lakh units on an annual basis. It clocks an approximate production capacity of 9,000 units of the “Indie” scooter on a monthly basis.
River Mobility currently sources battery cells from China and Korea, which form about 25% of the cost for the vehicle. The company does look at the bright side, as the improving cell costs might be heading low with additional plants for cell manufacturing reaching up to India.
River Mobility Eyes Expansion and Potential Funding Round
River Mobility is eyeing massive growth and will see its dealership network expand to about 500 cities. The company is looking at another round of fundraising during the next year itself to back the expansion plan. While the quantum of capital required is not known, the proceeds would be used to set up a new factory and build the dealership network.
Demonstrating its commitment to the Bengaluru market, River Mobility is opening its second company-owned store in Indira Nagar next week, followed by another in Rajaji Nagar by September. This takes the total number of stores it will have here to four, of which two are dealer-owned.
Other key cities beyond Karnataka that the company has identified for expansion in the future are Kochi, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. This will further expand the company’s reach out to a larger customer base and strengthen its market position.
