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By Piyush P. Yadav | 11 September 2026

Ultraviolette Automotive, the Bengaluru company best known for the Rs 3 lakh-plus F77 electric motorcycle, announced on 10 September 2026 that it will invest Rs 779 crore in a new factory at Hosur, Tamil Nadu, with an initial capacity of 2.5 lakh vehicles a year that can be doubled to 5 lakh. That is ten times the roughly 50,000-unit capacity of its existing Bengaluru plant, and the reason is a scooter. The Tesseract, first shown in March 2025 with a Rs 1.20 lakh introductory price and more than 60,000 bookings since, is the product Ultraviolette is betting will take it from a niche motorcycle maker to a volume player. This article looks at what was announced, what the Tesseract actually is, why its deliveries have slipped twice, and what it will be up against when it finally reaches customers.

What Ultraviolette announced on 10 September

The announcement, reported by Business Standard and the Free Press Journal, has four hard numbers in it. The investment is Rs 779 crore, spread over five years. The plant will be in Hosur, the Tamil Nadu town that already hosts TVS Motor and Ather Energy. Initial capacity is 2.5 lakh units a year, scalable to 5 lakh. And the money will come from internal reserves, equity and future cash flows with what the company calls limited use of debt. Ultraviolette is backed by Qualcomm and, tellingly, by TVS Motor, its future Hosur neighbour.

Co-founder and chief executive Narayan Subramaniam said demand for current products and upcoming models was exceeding the capacity of the existing plant. The company expects domestic demand for the Tesseract alone to be at least 10,000 units a month once deliveries start, which is a number the Bengaluru factory could not have met while also building the F77 and X47 motorcycles. Exports are currently about 15 per cent of sales, mostly to Europe and Latin America, with a target of 25 per cent within five years.

Item Detail
Investment Rs 779 crore over five years
Location Hosur, Tamil Nadu
Initial capacity 2,50,000 vehicles a year
Scalable to 5,00,000 vehicles a year
Existing plant Bengaluru, about 50,000 a year
Funding Internal accruals, equity, future cash flow; limited debt
Motorcycle sales, H1 2026 More than 3,000 units globally
Exports About 15 per cent of sales now, 25 per cent targeted
Expected Tesseract demand At least 10,000 units a month in India

The scale of the bet

The gap between what Ultraviolette sells today and what it is building for is enormous. The company sold a little over 3,000 motorcycles worldwide in the first half of 2026, which is around 500 a month. A 2.5 lakh-unit plant is designed for around 20,000 a month. Even the 10,000-a-month Tesseract forecast is twenty times current volume. For comparison, Ather Energy, which went public in 2025 and has been in the scooter business since 2018, took seven years to reach a plant of that size. Ultraviolette is planning to get there within a couple of years of shipping its first scooter.

The wider market makes that ambition less absurd than it sounds. Electric two-wheeler sales crossed 10.3 lakh units in the first eight months of 2026, and August was the first month in which electric scooters and motorcycles took more than 10 per cent of all two-wheeler sales. We broke down the brand-by-brand numbers in our eight-month electric two-wheeler scorecard. A market growing at that pace has room for a new entrant if the product is right and the price is honest.

What the Tesseract is

The Tesseract is a maxi-scooter, larger and more powerful than a Chetak or an iQube, and its specification sheet reads like nothing else in the segment. It is offered with three battery packs, 3.5 kWh, 5 kWh and 6 kWh, with claimed IDC ranges of 162 km, 220 km and 261 km. The motor is rated at 15 kW peak, which is roughly double the peak output of a TVS iQube and comparable to a mid-size 150cc petrol scooter’s engine. The equipment list includes dual radar sensors, front and rear dashcams, blind-spot detection and collision alerts, a 7-inch TFT screen, wireless phone charging, keyless access, hill hold and traction control, and 34 litres of under-seat storage.

Pricing was announced at the reveal in March 2025: Rs 1.45 lakh for the 3.5 kWh version, Rs 1.70 lakh for the 5 kWh and Rs 2 lakh for the 6 kWh, all ex-showroom. An introductory price of Rs 1.20 lakh was offered to the first 10,000 bookings and then extended to the first 50,000; bookings, at Rs 5,000 each, have since passed 60,000.

Tesseract variant Battery Claimed IDC range Announced price (ex-showroom)
Base 3.5 kWh 162 km Rs 1.45 lakh (Rs 1.20 lakh intro)
Mid 5 kWh 220 km Rs 1.70 lakh
Top 6 kWh 261 km Rs 2.00 lakh

Why deliveries have slipped, twice

The Tesseract was shown in March 2025 with deliveries promised for the first quarter of 2026. That moved to the second quarter, and then to a production-spec reveal after June 2026 with customer deliveries in the second half of the year. As of this week no customer has a Tesseract, and the Hosur announcement is the clearest signal yet of why: the company did not have a factory that could build the scooter at the volume its order book demanded. The 60,000 bookings alone would take the Bengaluru plant more than a year to clear if it built nothing else.

Two things follow for anyone holding a booking. First, the Hosur plant will not be producing in 2026; a Rs 779 crore greenfield factory on a five-year investment plan will take at least 12 to 18 months to reach first output. Early Tesseracts will therefore come from Bengaluru, in limited numbers. Second, the Rs 1.20 lakh introductory price applied to the first 50,000 bookings, so late bookers are already at the Rs 1.45 lakh list price, and it would be prudent to expect the list price itself to be revisited before mass deliveries, as Ola did with the S1 range and Ather did with the 450 series.

What it is up against

By the time the Tesseract ships in volume, the Rs 1.20 to 1.50 lakh segment will be the most crowded in the market. The table compares it with the established scooters at that price. Range figures are manufacturer claims on the IDC cycle unless noted, and prices are ex-showroom as reported in September 2026.

Scooter Battery Claimed range Peak power Ex-showroom price
Ultraviolette Tesseract 3.5 kWh 3.5 kWh 162 km 15 kW Rs 1.45 lakh (Rs 1.20 lakh intro)
Ather 450X 2.9 or 3.7 kWh 126 to 161 km 6.4 kW About Rs 1.51 lakh
Bajaj Chetak 35 series 3.5 kWh 131 to 153 km 4.2 kW About Rs 1.19 lakh onwards
Vida VX2 Plus 3.4 kWh Up to 128 km 6 kW About Rs 1.10 lakh
Ather Konarc Not stated here 100 to 200 km depending on pack Not stated here About Rs 1.02 lakh onwards

On paper the Tesseract’s advantages are power and equipment: nothing else at the price has radar, dashcams or a 15 kW motor. Its disadvantages are size, weight and the fact that every rival on that list has a national service network and years of on-road reliability data behind it. Ultraviolette’s F77 owners have generally reported good build quality, but a scooter that will be sold in tens of thousands to first-time EV buyers is a very different service proposition. Buyers choosing between the Tesseract and the Chetak or Konarc should read our September 2026 guide to electric scooters under Rs 1 lakh for the value end of the market, and our battery warranty comparison before committing to a new brand.

Where Hosur fits in the industry map

Hosur is becoming the Detroit of Indian electric two-wheelers. TVS builds the iQube there, Ather’s first plant is there, and now Ultraviolette will join them, with Ola’s Futurefactory in the same Krishnagiri district. The clustering is not accidental: Tamil Nadu’s EV policy offers capital subsidies and the supplier base for motors, controllers and battery packs is already in place. It also means Ultraviolette will be competing for the same engineers and line workers as its two largest rivals.

The other context is the scooter price war that Ola started with the Rs 79,999 S1 Z, which uses its own Bharat Cell LFP cells, and which Bajaj and TVS have answered with the Chetak 3001 and Orbiter. We examined how the five-year cost of an electric scooter compares with a petrol one at today’s prices. A premium maxi-scooter at Rs 1.45 to 2 lakh is deliberately staying out of that fight, aiming instead at buyers who would otherwise consider an Ather 450 Apex or a 160cc petrol scooter.

What to watch

  • Production-spec Tesseract: The final version, with confirmed weights, real-world range tests and any price revision, is the next milestone. Ultraviolette has said deliveries begin in the second half of 2026.
  • Shockwave: The sub-Rs 2 lakh motorcycle announced alongside the plant, which will be the F77’s entry-level sibling.
  • Hosur groundbreaking: The plant timeline will tell you when volume Tesseract deliveries are realistic. Anything before late 2027 would be fast.
  • Service network: Ultraviolette currently sells through a small number of experience centres. Ten thousand scooters a month needs hundreds of service points, and the expansion plan has not been detailed.

Sources & Further Reading

Frequently Asked Questions

When will the Ultraviolette Tesseract be delivered?

Ultraviolette’s latest timeline is customer deliveries in the second half of 2026, after a production-spec reveal. Deliveries were originally promised for the first quarter of 2026 and have slipped twice. Volume production depends on the new Hosur plant, which will take well over a year to build.

What is the Ultraviolette Tesseract price?

The announced ex-showroom prices are Rs 1.45 lakh for the 3.5 kWh version, Rs 1.70 lakh for the 5 kWh and Rs 2 lakh for the 6 kWh. An introductory Rs 1.20 lakh price applied to the first 50,000 bookings. Prices may be revised before deliveries begin.

Where is Ultraviolette’s new plant and how big is it?

The new plant is in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, with a Rs 779 crore investment over five years. Initial capacity is 2.5 lakh vehicles a year, expandable to 5 lakh, compared with about 50,000 at the existing Bengaluru factory.

How does the Tesseract compare with the Ather 450X and Bajaj Chetak?

The Tesseract has a far more powerful 15 kW motor, larger battery options up to 6 kWh, and features like radar and dashcams that no rival offers. The Ather 450X and Chetak are cheaper to buy in most versions, lighter, and backed by established service networks.