In an interview with AutoEV Times, Maninder Singh Nayyar, Founder and CEO of CEF Group, spoke about GoSporty’s role in making affordable electric mobility accessible across India. He discussed the company’s pricing strategy, customer focus, Harbhajan Singh’s role in building trust, expansion into electric two- and three-wheelers, after-sales support, battery lifecycle management, and CEF’s broader vision for cleaner, circular mobility, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
Read the full interview here:
AET: What made electric mobility a logical next step for a circular-economy company?
Maninder: For years, our work has happened far from the public eye: at landfills, lakes and processing plants. People benefit from it, but they rarely see it. With GoSporty, we wanted to give people a way to take part in sustainability themselves, every single day.
A student riding to college, a delivery worker finishing his rounds without spending on petrol, an office-goer skipping the traffic on a pedal-assist cycle. These are small choices, but multiplied across millions of people, they change how a city breathes. A circular economy isn’t only about what we process. It’s also about what we help people stop wasting, whether that’s fuel, money or time.
AET: How did you arrive at the price point, and who is the core customer?
When we went to the market, we noticed a clear gap. At one end, there were basic cycles priced at ₹5,000–₹7,000. At the other, two-wheelers were around ₹60,000. But there was very little in between—nothing really built for the ₹20,000–₹25,000 customer.
That’s where most Indian families sit, and nobody was serving them properly.
GoSporty is designed for that middle: everyday commuters, students, and blue-collar workers such as delivery riders, shop staff, and factory workers.
For these customers, affordability cannot mean cutting corners. Buying an e-cycle is a serious decision, and it needs to be dependable enough to last. So we priced GoSporty within reach without compromising on the things that matter: a reliable motor, a lithium-ion battery, and dual disc brakes.
And because it’s an e-cycle, there’s no licence, registration, or fuel required. Over time, it can cost significantly less than daily bus fares or petrol.
GoSporty is built for the people in the middle—people who need affordable mobility, but shouldn’t have to compromise on reliability.
AET: How has Harbhajan Singh’s association helped with trust and reach, especially in Tier 2 and 3 markets?
Maninder: In smaller towns, buying an electric product is still a leap of faith. People worry about the battery, after-sales service, and whether the brand will still be around a few years from now.
That’s where trust matters.
Harbhajan Singh, one of cricket’s most recognisable and fittest personalities, brings an instant sense of familiarity and credibility across India. His resilience, discipline, and fitness ethos also align naturally with a product that is designed to keep people active—not just moving.
His association with GoSporty has helped us open conversations with customers across both urban and rural markets, including people who may not have considered an e-cycle before.
For us, the association is not just about visibility. It is about making a relatively new category feel more familiar, trustworthy, and accessible to the customer.
AET: What is the roadmap for e-two, three- and four-wheelers, and which segment is the biggest opportunity?
Maninder: We’re building step by step, not jumping in everywhere at once. Our first focus has been widening the e-cycle range so there’s a model for different kinds of riders, from daily commuters to students to people who use their cycle for work. E-cycles have been our learning ground for the Indian EV customer, dealer networks and battery support.
From there, we’ll move into electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers, with four-wheelers as a longer-term play, most likely for commercial and fleet use. The biggest opportunity, in my view, is electric three-wheelers. They’re already among India’s fastest-adopting EV segments, the economics work for drivers from day one, and they connect directly to last-mile logistics and waste collection, which we understand well.
AET: What has your experience been with distribution, after-sales and battery support, and where are you investing next?
Maninder: We launched with a wide footprint from day one, through online platforms and local dealerships. Since then, our focus has been less on adding new states and more on going deeper within them, building stronger dealer relationships and reaching smaller towns.
Online gives us reach, but dealers give customers a place to walk into. In EVs, after-sales is where brands win or lose. A customer will forgive a lot, but not a cycle standing idle for weeks. So we’re investing in more service touchpoints in smaller towns, better-trained dealer technicians and dependable battery support. For a circular-economy company, what happens to a battery after its first life matters as much as the sale.
AET: How does GoSporty fit into CEF’s wider mission, and what impact do you expect over the next three to five years?
Maninder: CEF exists to close the loop: waste becomes energy, and energy powers cleaner lives. GoSporty is the part of that loop people can see and ride. Every trip on it is zero-emission, and at scale that means lower carbon footprints and greener cities.
Over the coming years, we want to change a habit. A short trip to work, college or the market shouldn’t need petrol. If clean commuting becomes the obvious, affordable choice in a Meerut or a Ludhiana, and not just in Delhi or Bengaluru, we’ll have done our job.
