When Harish Surampade, an avid motorcyclist driven by a passion for pushing limits, embarked on a 10,000-kilometre solo ride across India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet, it wasn’t just an adventure—it was a bold statement on the future of mobility. His machine of choice: the Ultraviolette F77, engineered for both performance and endurance.
What followed was a journey of resilience and innovation—navigating sub-zero Himalayan passes, high-altitude border crossings, and remote regions far from the reach of charging infrastructure. From the slick curves near Tsomgo Lake to the 14,140-foot Nathu La Pass—where Surampade became the first EV rider to earn a permit—every kilometre redefined the limits of electric mobility.
Earlier, rider Baala Manikandan completed a 6,727-kilometre expedition from Chennai to Leh-Ladakh and back in just 22 days, earning the F77 its place in both the India Book of Records and Asia Book of Records. Crossing scorching plains, mountain roads, and varied climates, Baala’s ride showcased the F77’s durability and efficiency, backed by detailed performance data captured across diverse terrains.
Together, these rides mark a pivotal chapter in EV history—where the Ultraviolette F77 proves its mettle not just on the road, but in rewriting what’s possible in electric motorcycling.
Harish Surampade & Baala Manikandan
What drove the duo to go beyond record-setting rides and focus on product validation? It was Ultraviolette’s core focus on design, development, and precision manufacturing—transforming every idea into art and engineering into performance. The F77’s core mechanical elements—the battery pack, motor, and transmission—are not merely bolted to a frame. They are the frame. This integration lends the motorcycle extraordinary structural stability, making it composed on corners, stable off-road, and confidently planted on high-speed stretches. The battery itself weighs over 60 kilograms, yet it never becomes a burden. Instead, it becomes the very backbone of the machine.
Add to that an inbuilt charger designed to work with a variety of power sources—an essential feature when you’re chasing the horizon through unpredictable terrain—and Surampade was able to plug in anywhere, from remote villages to towns. The result? An electric journey unlike any other, one that proved the Ultraviolette F77 is not just an electric motorcycle, but a new kind of explorer.
Inside The Factory - Where Precision Meets Purpose
To understand the backbone of the Ultraviolette F77’s performance, we stepped inside the company’s manufacturing facility in Jigani, Bengaluru. Though only three years old, the plant already reflects maturity in design and execution, combining smart production practices with engineering discipline.
With a 30,000-unit annual capacity, the facility limits automation to maintain agility, enabling flexible product evolution while controlling costs and complexity. Automation is reserved for high-precision tasks like resistance welding and vision-based inspection, where consistency is crucial and manual error unacceptable.
The production process begins with the battery. Imported cells are meticulously sorted based on resistance and voltage, then grouped into modules with tight tolerance bands to ensure uniform thermal behaviour and long-term reliability. This modular and configurable battery architecture allows the OEM to tailor range options within the same platform—one of the many innovations that set it apart.
Manual cell loading is reinforced with machine vision to eliminate human error, while thermal safety is managed using a specially developed encapsulant foam that provides both insulation and protection in the rare event of thermal runaway. A patented thermal extraction technique, enabled by a uniquely designed PCB and current collectors, ensures efficient heat dissipation without compromising structural integrity.
Each weld is resistance-monitored in real time, a level of scrutiny that underscores the company's obsession with safety and durability. Post-assembly, every battery pack undergoes rigorous diagnostics, including performance cycling, sensor health checks, and 24-hour deterioration tests. Leak testing via air pressure ensures full compliance with IP67 standards.
Vinayak S Bhat, Narayan Subramaniam & Niraj Rajmohan
“Less than one percent of packs require rework, and that too mostly due to weld inconsistencies,” says Vinayak S Bhat, Chief Product Officer—a figure that speaks volumes about the precision baked into every unit that rolls off the line.
Engineering Becomes Experience
At the facility, vehicle assembly reflects a careful balance of structural engineering, software integration, and mechanical precision. The process begins not with a traditional frame, but with an engineering shift—the battery pack and gearbox themselves serve as structural stress members, eliminating the need for auxiliary reinforcements. This integrated design not only reduces chassis weight but also enhances rigidity, with the battery doubling as a load-bearing element.
At the core of the drivetrain is a compact, high-speed motor spinning up to 9,000 RPM and paired with a reduction gearbox, to deliver smooth and efficient torque to the wheels. Cleverly, the gearbox isn’t just a functional link in the powertrain—it plays a dual role as a central load distributor, anchoring the structural geometry of the vehicle.
The assembly process is carefully structured to ensure precision. From the first station, the vehicle is held on fixtures until it reaches the wheel assembly stage at station-4. After the wheels are mounted, a crane transitions the bike onto a rolling platform, enabling mobility through the final stations. After station 14, the vehicle begins dynamic testing, moving under its own power for the first time.
Born Digitally Aligned
But Ultraviolette’s innovation doesn’t end with mechanics—it extends into digital manufacturing and cloud intelligence. Over-the-air (OTA) updates begin right at the factory floor. As each bike moves through assembly, it is wirelessly flashed with vehicle-specific software, tailored through barcode-scanned components and firmware profiles. This eliminates manual programming errors and ensures each unit is born digitally aligned.
Every torque value, VCU configuration, battery cell serial number, and even dyno feedback is logged and stored in the cloud, giving the vehicle maker complete digital traceability of every motorcycle that leaves its line. This deep integration not only supports efficient service diagnostics but also lays the foundation for long-term product evolution and connected performance.
Before final dispatch, each unit undergoes aesthetic inspections followed by a mandatory 20 km road test. Any cosmetic defects are rerouted to rework, ensuring nothing leaves the plant without meeting the brand’s exacting standards.
As a pilot facility, the Jigani plant serves as a blueprint for larger-scale operations in the future—its design and processes constantly refined through real-world feedback.
Smart, Scalable Supply, Development Ecosystem
Behind the Ultraviolette F77’s sophisticated silhouette lies a supply chain engineered for efficiency and resilience. Supported by around 180 Indian vendors, the company has consciously kept its component sourcing largely local. Only three key elements—battery cells, semiconductor ICs, and rare earth magnets—are imported, reflecting global constraints rather than a lack of capability. Even the printed circuit boards (PCBs) are designed in-house and assembled by Indian EMS partners using precision pick-and-place automation. Rather than pursue full vertical integration, the company leverages India’s robust, cost-effective manufacturing ecosystem—a strategic choice that balances control with scalability.
Influenced by an aviation background, Bhat brings a unique perspective. The emphasis is on structural optimisation through load-sharing components and built-in redundancies—design principles more common in aerospace than in everyday mobility. This results in motorcycles that are not just lighter, but engineered for integrity and resilience under stress.
Faced with the constraints typical of a startup, the team adopted a simulation-led development model to save both time and capital, the Co-founders Narayan Subramaniam and Niraj Rajmohan, said. Only ten prototype units—Z01 through Z10—were built before locking in the final design. Each served a specific validation function: endurance, compliance, destructive testing, or calibration. Frugal innovation was the guiding principle, with emphasis on calculation-backed decisions rather than costly iterative prototyping, they mentioned.
The company also took a deliberate approach to scaling. Initial production volumes were kept intentionally low, allowing for tight control over quality and processes. This phased strategy enabled the validation of technology and manufacturing workflows before moving to higher output—laying a solid foundation for long-term scale and reliability.
This modular mindset extends into product development, as the F77 is not just a standalone motorcycle; it's a foundational architecture designed to support an entire family of two-wheelers—ranging from sport to cruiser, street to adventure. This modularity compresses the product development cycle, enabling the company to introduce new models within 24 months, far faster than the industry-standard 24–36-month window, they added.
Crafting Credibility
Instead of chasing aggressive scale, the team focused on building credibility through consistency. Quality wasn’t treated as a by-product of investment but as a discipline—one that called for refining not just machines, but processes and people. Each detail, from weld integrity to software tuning, was scrutinised repeatedly before being signed off.
By combining deep digital integration, agile sourcing, and a rigorous, simulation-first development strategy, Ultraviolette isn’t just producing motorcycles—it’s quietly rewriting the rules of how performance electric vehicles can be conceived, built, and scaled in India.
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