Ultraviolette’s TESSERACT: 20,000+ Pre-Bookings, But Is This Just Hype?

Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) in electric scooters was just a concept till now. However, with the launch of TESSERACT, on Mar.5, Ultraviolette has made a leap in the direction of autonomous riding. 

Initially, the company announced that it would offer its exclusive introductory price of ₹1.20 to its first 10,000 customers. However, due to overwhelming demand, already crossing 20,000+ pre-bookings, the company has decided to extend the offer to its first 50,000 customers.

With the first integrated radar and dashcam, coupled with Omnisense mirrors, to offer advanced safety technologies like blindspot detection, lane change, overtaking assist, and real-time collision alerts, the TESSERACT electric scooter has created a significant hype in the market. Sounds like a game-changer, right? But is it really worth the hype? 

Before you get carried away, let’s break down the full picture and truly understand whether this launch is India’s next big EV revolution, or just another overhyped launch with hidden details? 👇

1. TESSERACT Is Still a Prototype – Are You Pre-Booking a Dream or Future?

📌 While Ultraviolette claims industry-first features like integrated radar, dashcam, and AI-driven safety tech, the TESSERACT is still in prototype stage and has yet to experience Indian roads. Although the futuristic technologies are often scary at first, they bring exclusivity to the early adopters. Moreover, with sports bikes like F77 and F77 Mach 2, the track record of the Ultraviolette remains promising, providing a purchase of trust to the early adopters. 

📌 Real-world performance, ride quality, and reliability are yet to be tested. Will it truly deliver the IDC range of 261 km (top variant) or is this just on-paper excellence? 

It remains a genuine concern of EV users that the claimed and real range remains two separate numbers. However, in exclusive talks with EVINDIA, CEO of Ultraviolette, Narayan Subramaniam, has assured its customers that the difference between the two will not be drastic. 

When asked whether users should expect 30% less of the claimed range, Subramaniam said, “I think even more efficient. In our F77, the claimed range is 323kms and owners are clocking (close to) 280kms. It depends on riding experience. Our real world is quite close to IDC”

📌 Deliveries will only start in early 2026 – that’s nearly a year away! By then, the competition will have evolved, and you may be left with a product that no longer feels cutting-edge.

With the advent of riding technology, various upcoming electric scooters are expected to take the future competition to an entirely new level. For instance, recently, Ola Electric’s CEO Bhavish Aggarawal posted a video on X indicating the company’s trial run on ADAS technology. The video shows a front-facing camera, a makeshift screen mounted on the S1 Pro and a camera detecting other vehicles on the road.

2. The Price Game – Is the ₹1.45 Lakh Offer Too Good to Be True?

• The price tag sounds aggressive, but there’s a catch. Here’s what you should know:
• ✔ ₹1.45L is ONLY for the base 3.5kWh variant – with lower performance.
• ✔ Higher battery variants (5kWh & 6kWh) will cost significantly more. But Ultraviolette won’t reveal the pricing until December 2025.
• ✔ No more subsidy when it actually starts shipping. This means the final price you pay could be much higher than expected.

3. How Does TESSERACT Compare to the Competition?

Many are comparing TESSERACT to Ola’s lineup, but that’s NOT the real competition. Here’s why:

🔸 Ola S1 Pro (4kWh variant) is priced significantly lower, making it a mass market product. Both the electric scooters are designed for different market segments, which rarely overlap with each other.

🔸 True competitors: The Ather Apex priced at Rs ₹1.99 lakhs and TVS X priced at 2.5 lakhs are both premium scooters with high-tech features.

With its advanced offerings and premium pricing of ₹2 lakh, will Ultraviolette be able to push the median market price even ahead?

4. Ultraviolette’s Financial Reality – Growth or a Money Pit?

While Ultraviolette is aggressively expanding, its financials frameworks may help customers to get more insight. Here’s a look at the numbers:

• Total Funding: $76.9 million across 13 rounds.
• Valuation: $330 million (as of Nov 14, 2024).
• Major investors like TVS Motor Company, Qualcomm Ventures, Zoho, and EXOR Capital, a former investor of Ferrari, underline the confidence in the company. 

5. What’s Next for Ultraviolette? Expansion or Uncertainty?

Ultraviolette has big dreams:

✔ Plans to expand to 50 cities across India by FY 2026.

✔ Aims to tap into global markets (UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France).

✔ Is positioning itself as a premium, high-tech EV brand.

But expansion is expensive, and with increasing losses, will investors continue backing them? Or will the end consumer bear the cost in the form of higher pricing?

What do we think?

No doubt, TESSERACT is a futuristic, premium, and feature-packed electric scooter. As the company received overwhelming pre-booking orders, the delivery timeline promised might need accelerated funding options to make the company stand by their commitment. In addition, Ultraviolette might also need to raise another significant round to ramp up the production and expand the dealership network to more than 50 cities.

Would you pre-book one today, or wait until the final product is out? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

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