The battleground for electric vehicles in India is getting noisy. In addition to the likes of Ather Energy, Bajaj and Ola, a slew of other players including Tesla, Hyundai and Honda have shared their plans for launching vehicles in this market. So, it comes as no surprise that now Chinese phone makers are adding to this crowded space.
Close on the heels of Realme, another Chinese brand OnePlus has filed trademarks in the auto category. The company, which has blocked the brand name "OnePlus Life", suggests that it could focus on autonomous cars and electric bicycles and scooters.
The trademark was first filed in April but latest updates indicate that the company is seeking to enter the electric vehicles segment. The patent application was spotted by RushLane, which also identified a similar filing by Realme that sought a trademark for electric vehicles, trolleys, anti-theft devices, camera drones and remove cars.
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BBK Electronics, the parent company of OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme are looking at the electric vehicle space that already boasts of several Indian auto manufacturers including Tata, Ola, MG, Audi and others.
The company has a strong presence in the United States, UK, China and India and could be eyeing the latter as a manufacturing hub for the region. Already, we have seen electric vehicle makers like Ather Energy and Ola set up shop in the country with Tesla also announcing its imminent entry with four basic models.
In April of 2019, OnePlus had teased an electric supercar called Warp on their official website. However, since the post appeared on the first of April, it was shrugged off as a joke. However, the latest attempts at trademarking OnePlus Life in the auto segment suggests that there could have been reasons to believe the prank.
Just so that users are familiar with that prank, OnePlus had claimed that their car would accelerate from 0 to 90 kph in just three seconds, have a range of more than 470 kilometres on a single charge and come with a fast-charging option that would allow it to get full charge in just 20 minutes.
The trademark application does not reveal much about the company's plan barring the information that it was interested in driverless cars, self-balancing scooters, remote-sensing vehicles, civilian drones, and electric unicycles.
OnePlus, which has been on a transition phase could witness a merger with Oppo some time next year, when the company is also slated to launch its next flagship smartphone, the OnePlus 10. The new phone would come with a unified OS that combines the best of ColorOS and OxygenOS.
In March this year, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau had spoken to TechRadar about how the company planned to retain its focus on the camera department and go about with their strategy of tailoring the products regional markets.
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