Every summer, we are reminded that innovation isn’t only about the machines we build — it’s also about the people who bring fresh energy, ideas, and curiosity into Yatri. This summer, the reminder was Jenee, an undergraduate student in Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University, California, who traveled across the world to Nepal for her internship with us.

Jenee’s internship journey was nothing short of inspiring. She didn’t have just one project — instead, she immersed herself in many different aspects of engineering, gaining a complete view of how scooters and motorcycles are designed and manufactured at Yatri. Jenee engaged with both manufacturing and design teams, learning the essence of the multidisciplinary nature of vehicle engineering.

On the factory floor, she worked alongside the production team, preparing 50+ DXF drawings for plasma cutting, designing CNC punch and die tools, and even creating 3D-printed guides to help precisely fabricate chassis parts. In the design studio, she modeled everything from snap-fit components to the motorcycle side stand in 3DS CATIA, ran topology optimization studies to make parts lighter and stronger, and validated her POS machine bracket design through stress analysis.

Through this combination of tasks, Jenee gained direct experience in the entire cycle of engineering — from conceptual design to manufacturing validation. This aligns with our internship philosophy: to provide a holistic, hands-on learning experience that bridges academic theory with industrial application.

Reflecting on her time at Yatri, Jenee shared:

“This was a really great, educational experience. I have learned a lot from everyone and have been introduced to many different aspects of engineering that I will be excited to explore further in my future career. This is a valuable experience I will not forget. Yatri is an amazing company with great people, doing innovative things in Nepal that I fully support.”

Her words highlight what we strive to achieve at Yatri — an environment that inspires, challenges, and empowers young engineers.

As we continue to grow, we look forward to welcoming more talented students from Nepal and abroad, ensuring Yatri remains a hub where innovation, learning, and industry collaboration intersect.

Together, we’ll continue redefining what’s possible for mobility in Nepal and beyond.

Kathmandu. Yatri and Sipradi have signed an agreement to establish a Joint Venture to develop, manufacture and Promote Yatri products.

The JV benefits from Sipradi's multiple decade experience in the automotive domain and allied businesses since 1982. Sipradi, Nepal's prestigious organization, will support Yatri and drive forward innovation in engineering and development of sustainable transportation systems.

"Forward thinking and Progressive design are the two key pillars of this collaboration. This partnership enables us to build affordable yet cutting-edge electric vehicles while allowing us to build an excellent network in the region", says Ashim Pandey, Founder and CEO of Yatri Design Studio.

"The preparatory groundwork and the detailed study that has gone into this Joint Venture is a testament to our intent of a long standing partnership with Yatri and tackle broader mobility challenges", says Rajan Babu Shrestha, CEO of Sipradi Companies.

The signing of the JV contract represents a shared vision of local innovation in automotive engineering. It marks an important milestone as the partnership seeks to shake up the stagnant electric two-wheeler industry with affordable and exciting Yatri products.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude towards everyone who has been instrumental in the process of making this partnership a reality; especially all the members of Cross Functional Team (from both Sipradi and Yatri), spanning multiple functions including technology, finance, operations as well as our Board, Core Team, technical and non-technical team members, including our in-house financial consultants.

Yatri Motorcycles came into existence in 2017. For the past five years, we have been working to develop performance-focused electric vehicles from the ground up, in Nepal. P-1 is our first commercial indigenous vehicle platform borne out of this R&D.

Our company’s origin is based on the vision of reinventing urban mobility by developing world-class electric vehicles and its ecosystem in-house. By creating a team that can work on a wide spectrum of technology and an environment that nurtures great talents to compete on a global platform, Yatri has been moving forward on this mission with great strides.

To give a clear context of the progress in terms of the advancements we have made so far and the hurdles on this mission, let us describe our major timelines in brief.

On 6 December 2017, we registered Yatri as a company at the Office of the Company Registrar with the aim to develop electric vehicles in Nepal and conduct sales and distribution of these said vehicles in Nepal and beyond. As such, we then begin immediately applying for permissions and certificates from various ministries and departments for our work.

Among other certificates, an important one for us was the permission to build our own chassis which was awarded to us by the Department of Transport Management (DOTM) of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MOPIT). This separates us from everyone else in this space as we do not bring CKD parts to assemble from foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) which several other dealerships are doing. This certificate granted us permission to set up a ‘cha’ category workshop to build our own chassis indigenously in Nepal.

After several years of development, prototyping, testing, iterating, and further development, we were ready with a pre-production unit of P-1 for Roadworthiness Test from another department of MOPIT (Vehicle Fitness Center, Teku) in November 2021. We successfully passed all the Roadworthiness Tests and received another certificate awarding us the approval to be able to register and operate the P-1 vehicles in Nepal. This certificate was accompanied by a recommendation letter addressing yet another department of MOPIT (Vehicle Registration Office, Gurjudhara) to register the bike. This is when we realized how outdated our policies are and the need for a forward-looking policy for our country.

To register a vehicle - the registration office requires a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) inscribed on the chassis and Engine Number (in our case Motor Number). As there is no authority to regulate the VIN because there are no other vehicle manufacturers who indigenously build their own chassis - we took the initiative to apply to SAE USA which awards the VIN for the jurisdiction where no local authority provides this. As such, we are the first OEM from Nepal to receive a VIN code for Nepal. We abide by ISO3780 to create a unique VIN for each chassis to guarantee traceability, as is with our unique Motor Numbers.

Although Section 20 of the Motor Vehicles and Transport Management Act 2075 for Bagmati has mentioned registration for ‘Made in Nepal’ vehicles, the embarrassing protocol at the Vehicle Registration Office at Gurjudhara states to register vehicles as per the VIN and Engine number written on the ‘Pragyapan Patra’ received at the Customs Clearing Office only. However, since P-1 is entirely brought to life in Nepal, we only have ‘Pragyapan Patra’ of raw and unprocessed parts. We also submitted the complete copy of Pragyapan Patra (for all imported raw materials) to Gurjudhara at their request. However, this process of registration for Made in Nepal vehicles has created a lot of confusion among the personnel at the Registration Office, and our case has been going around from office to office (from Bagmati Provincial government to DOTM to MOPIT) for over a year now with no clear leadership and initiative to really help this noble cause of the country’s own capital goods manufacturing. According to them, there is no clear regulation in sight to govern the registration of Nepal-made motor vehicles.

We hope this blog entry sheds some light on the legal inconsistencies. However, we would also like to mention that together with the Technical Director and his team at DOTM and a few forward-thinking personnel at MOPIT, we have provided feedback in formulating an 85-page Directive that would essentially solve all the problems in registering a ‘made in Nepal’ vehicle and is ready to be implemented. However, we were told that for this Directive to be implemented by the DOTM, there has to be an amendment in Niyamawali which needs to go through the Minister’s Cabinet approval. However, according to the latest information that we received, strangely everything except the “Directive for Made in Nepal” vehicles were approved in the last cabinet meeting. Lack of clear leadership and vision in the government despite our repeated clarification and requests has been the single biggest root cause for this unacceptable delay that has caused frustrations among our users and a halt of our production since September 2022 (after briefly producing bikes from May 2022) leading to the dire internal situation.

After constantly working with government officials and departments for over a year now, we have made some progress but not enough to solve the problem, yet. It has incredibly demotivated and frustrated us but we have not lost hope nor the willingness to develop and manufacture world-class vehicles in Nepal - thanks to the huge support from our incredible users and community of supporters. We are hopeful that our difficult period of legal limbo will come to an end swiftly to help our users and provide us with a clear path to move forward. In order to pave the way for our nation’s self-reliance on individual modes of transport which is 80% of the utilization and development of domestic electricity market consumption to mitigate a large trade deficit due to the import of transport fossil fuel, we believe Nepal’s Governmental Policies should be forward thinking to support sustainable mobility for all.

Let us get one thing clear - we would not have been here without you and the trust you have placed on us. We are extremely grateful for that and take great pride. This blog, besides giving you an update on the status of your P-1 production and other cool things keeping our team busy, is a note of gratitude for the love, support and patience you have shown us over time. Thank you!

SINCERE & TRANSPARENT NOTICE

2021 until now!

Since our very first public demo and official unveiling of P-1 in April of 2021, we have come a long way meeting many challenging milestones and achievements and we are so thankful of the continuous support we have received from you over this period.

From 6 major platform iterations, over 50,000 man hours of refinement from V1 until V6 until design freeze, in-house development of DC Fast charger, state-of-the-art connectivity, development of smart AC charger point for ALL EVs, nation's first 'World Manufacturer' status, regulatory approvals are some of the highlights in this relatively short period of time. We are incredibly grateful to our amazing team who made all of this possible while facing many challenges and constraints.

Finally, from February 2022, we have officially begun the commercial production of Series 1.0 parts and components which are done in-house. Besides these in-house parts, our shipment containers, after much delay and logistical issues, are on our way, finally! This is a heartfelt communication with you, Series 1.0 users, about our logistical situation, and timeline explanation to why we have been unable to bring our products quickly to you. This is not unique to Yatri as major manufacturers with decades of streamlined supply-chain are also facing similar delays. However, our issue is a mix of both current shipping line congestion around the world and our relative inexperience in supply-chain streamlining domain.

This is first time that Yatri, or any entity for that matter, is bringing in a full-container of Class-9 Dangerous Goods (DG), which is a classification of Lithium Ion Batteries, to Nepal. The regulations, certifications and logistical arrangement required compared to what we had been doing with sample cells and battery packs logistics, came out to be a different beast altogether.

After taking care of all the certifications and approvals, we finally managed to sail the vessel in late February and is scheduled to arrive our Birgunj dry port end of this month/first week of April. We expect assembly completion to begin from second week of April and start delivery ceremony from 3rd and 4th week of April.

We have tested patience of many first series users until now, and now, more than ever, require your support as we are almost there! ❤️

Meanwhile, here are some of the snapshots of the P-1 production happening at our Kathmandu facility that ranges from electrical department, electronics and vehicle software department and mechanical department.

Roadmap Ahead!

We are working to schedule Series 1.0 user to an exclusive factory tour towards the end of this month where users can meet the development team, get to see the full development process up close, network and meet fellow Series 1.0 special users.

Besides, we will use this event to finalize the purchase agreement and choose your payment terms. Payment options available to us at the moment is outlined below and full breakdown can be viewed in our website.

April

Your Yatri Account login credentials will be supplied and you can begin exploring the app and track real-time production status from your Yatri app itself:

1. Chassis & VIN association;
2. Chassis ready from paint and in queue;
3. Chassis in assembly line;
4. Assembly complete and P-1 in QC;
5. P-1 ready to be collected

April 3rd week - Phase A 50+ AC points live

April 4th week - Series 1.0 P-1 delivery I begins

May

May 2nd week - Series 1.0 P-1 delivery II begins

May 3rd week - Phase B 150+ AC points live

May 3rd week - 50+ DC Fast Charger live (Kathmandu en route Pokhara - Chitwan - Butwal)

May 4th week - Series 2.0 P-1 delivery I begins

June

June 2nd week - 60+ DC Fast Charger live (Hetauda to Illam)

June 3rd week - 70+ DC Fast Charger live (BP Highway)

June 4th week - 80+ DC Fast Charger live (Nepalgunj to Dhangadi)

July

July 2nd week - 125+ DC Fast Charger live (Butwal - Tansen - Pokhara - Muktinath)

YATRI ENERGY

Introducing Yatri C-3PX

Our vision to bring a paradigm shift in the overall mobility landscape means not just developing an inspiring electric vehicle but an entire ecosystem of sustainable products and services. As such, we have been working relentlessly to develop scalable charging infrastructure, seamless authentication and payment system to address the biggest barrier in switching to electric.

Yatri C-3PX - rapidly scalable AC charging points
Scan. Pay. Charge! As simple as it could be. With Yatri's DC fast charger and C-3PX implemented throughout the nation, you can throw your range anxiety out of the window. Strategically placed DC Fast Charger supported by these AC points that roughly adds 1 km every 1.5 min will help us tackle the biggest EV adoption barrier.

Besides Yatri's exclusive DC Fast Charger that charges P-1 to 80% in 30 minutes, Yatri's C-3PX is a dedicated AC charging points that will be available in all major highway every 20km. Yes, you saw that right, EVERY 20KM!

In the near future, Yatri will open the C-3PX AC charger network to ALL the EV users, both two and four-wheelers. It is about time we work to strengthen our nation's independence from fossil fuel and protect our environment, together!

C-3PX User Interaction

Trip Overview

Use the Yatri app to get a bird's eye view your current location & final destination and possible routes with charging points.

Charger Status

After deciding on a possible route, check on the potential chargers you might want to use on your way and see its status.

Route Planning

With the app, you can know the estimated distance and drop in SOC of your P-1 to plan your trip with peace of mind.

Seamless Payment

Scan, Pay and Charge. Scan the QR code, then select the time you want to charge, pay the fees and then plug in the bike.

DC Fast Charger

User Interaction

Yatri DC Fast Charger is a premium service available exclusively to Yatri owners only. This service will be free to our first series users for lifetime.

From second series onward, the UX is not that different as the station will automatically authenticate the vehicle and check the user's Yatri balance and initiate the charge. All this happens seamlessly without any user input, you simply plug your bike. In case you run out of balance, there will be two courtesy charges on us before you top up your Yatri balance.

THANK YOU AGAIN!

We hope you will appreciate our honesty and transparency that we want to establish. We certainly hope you will understand the situation of delay, especially the why, which has been largely out of our control. We are working tirelessly to start the deliveries as soon as possible and we are nearly there. Let's make this history, together! 🙌