The two-wheeler EV market is racing in the fast lane, which may very well be a sign of the coming age of consumers and a higher acceptance of electric vehicles, the retail sales number in the first quarter of FY2023 has surpassed the 100,000 sales milestone mark. In the first quarter of the year 2022, high-speed electric two-wheeler sales came at 122,015 units, with an average of 40,672 units being sold each month.
It seems to be an aggressive battle for the number one spot, Ola Electric has grabbed the top position from Okinawa Autotech by a meagre margin of 532 units in the first quarter of 2022. For the first three months of the new year, Ola averaged retail sales of 9,276 units, while Okinawa Autotech reported 9,098 sales per month. Facing a bottleneck due to a semiconductor shortage, Hero Electric saw its production impact spillover towards not being able to meet customer demand. The company sold 15,915 units in the first three months of Q1 2022. The average sales were 5,305 units per month.
“This is an extremely positive demonstration of the potential electric two-wheelers have in India. In fact, India’s primary electrification will happen in two-, three-wheelers, and buses. The passenger vehicle segment will see much slower electrification and that too more in fleet operations than individuals,” said Avik Chattopadhyay founder, Expereal, a brand consultancy firm.
“Given the production capacity claims of a few electric two-wheeler manufacturers, meeting demand should not be a problem as long as the semi-conductor supplies are taken care of. Small capacity players might have to take a business call on expansion. And the entry of certain legacy two-wheeler makers will certainly add to the manufacturing capacity,” added Chattopadhyay.
Time will tell that with rising fuel costs and high-range offerings will electric two-wheeler sales especially in the scooter segment start chipping away IC-scooter sales.
