Worried about your food going bad in the refrigerator with recurring power cuts, each lasting for hours?
Electrolux Kelvinator Limited, the Indian subsidiary of the Electrolux Group, has a solution for it.
It has launched 'Bijlee'-- a refrigerator that comes with a 12-hour power backup!
Bijlee is designed with a built-in power pack, which facilitates its operation on an external connected battery during power cuts. In case of power failure or voltage fluctuation, below 165 Volts or above 255 Volts, the power automatically changes over to the battery mode.
'Bijlee' has been researched and designed at the company's Shahjahanpur plant.
Electrolux hopes to tap into the rural and semi-urban markets of India, which is estimated to have 13.1 million urban households with a monthly household income in the range of Rs. 3000-8000.
In the initial phase, the company plans to target 5.7 million non-users concentrated in 10 lakh-population towns of North India, which it hopes to reach immediately due to its foothold in the region. In the second phase, the company plans to enter the B and C class towns.
"After consolidating our presence in the bigger markets, we are now expanding our focus on the rural markets. In India, the penetration levels of refrigerators, especially in rural markets, are extremely low primarily due to poor electrification and inadequate infrastructure in the rural areas," says Rajeev Karwal, managing director and CEO, Electrolux Kelvinator Limited.
"Considering that about 80,000 villages in India do not have access to proper electricity, Bijlee provides us with an enormous potential to drive volumes," he adds.
Bijlee, a direct cool refrigerator, will be available in 170 litres capacity and comes at a price of Rs 10,990 (excluding battery cost).
The refrigerator comes with also a feature that allows time delay of five minutes whenever it changes to battery mode or back to power mode, to ensure the safety of the compressor. It also offers overload protection for safety against any malfunctioning of compressor and voltage fluctuation safeguard.
Along with the 'Bijlee', Electrolux has also launched another combination refrigerator product.
It has launched a refrigerator with FM Radio and message recorder and has called the model 'Tamanna'.
Tamanna, is priced at Rs 13,990 and is available in 230 litres capacity.
"We are confident that this refrigerator will change the way women work in the kitchens and will make it more enjoyable by breaking the monotony of the kitchen," says Karwal.
Tamannna comes equipped with an auto search FM band Radio and offers a message recorder that can record voice messages of 10 seconds duration. The LCD panel on the refrigerator ensures clear view of screen in case of inadequate ambient light.
"It has been observed that most of the times people were using magnetic stickers or post-it to leave messages for others on refrigerator door. Similarly housewives were using radio in the kitchen to avoid the monotony of daily routine work. Keeping these needs and desires of customer in mind, Electrolux developed Tamanna to offer these innovative features," says Karwal.
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