Electric scooter sales cross 70,000 units in October

October and November 2023 are set to be record months for the two-wheeler market in India – both EVs and ICE. With the 42 day festive period beginning on October 15 and ending only 15 days after Dhanteras, the ICE and EV segments are benefitting hugely from the increased consumer spend on new vehicle purchases. As per retail sales data on the government’s VAHAN portal as on November 1, a total of 71,604 electric two-wheelers were sold in October 2023.

This makes October 2023 the month with the third highest sales after March 2023 (86,339 units) and May 2023 (1,05,521 units). While March numbers reflect the typical fiscal-year-end high, the record retails in May were a result of buyers rushing to buy electric two-wheelers before the slashed-by-25 percent FAME subsidy kicked in from June 1, 2023.

Overall sales in October 2023 would have been higher if not for the shraddh period (September 29-October 14), wherein people in India don't make new purchases. Nevertheless, demand turned out to be very strong in the second half of last month.

Consequently, October 2023 retails, which had a tepid first fortnight, saw year-on-year (YoY) sales fall 7 percent (October 2022: 77,267 units). October sales figures also point towards the fact that the market is maturing, and people are buying EVs despite the FAME subsidy being slashed. As many as 2,98,935 EVs have been sold since June 2023 at higher prices. It may be recollected that e-two-wheeler sales had crashed to a 11-month low of 46,064 units in June 2023 after the FAME subsidy was slashed to a fourth of its original amount.

Cumulative sales for the first nine months of 2023, at 6,88,442 units, are 41 percent better than January-October 2022’s 4,89,726 units. This also means that this year’s sales have surpassed 2022's retail sales of 6,31,174 units, with two months left for the calendar year to come to a close. With the festive season continuing for another fortnight, it can be surmised that the Indian electric two-wheeler industry could close CY2023 with total sales in the region of 7.5 lakh-8 lakh units, which translates into an 18-25 percent YoY growth.

A deep dive into the VAHAN retail sales data reveals that of the 165 manufacturers in India’s very competitive e-two-wheeler market, the top nine EV makers have each sold over 1,000 units each, and cumulatively sold 64,478 units, accounting for 90 percent of total October sales. The top two EV manufacturers – Ola Electric and TVS Motor Co – are the only ones with retails in five figures.

As accurately forecast last month, market leader Ola Electric sold over 20,000 units in October – the 22,565 units sees it grow its already-commanding share to 31 percent and makes for a strong 21 percent month-on-month (MoM) growth. What’s more, the company has surpassed the 2,00,000 sales milestone in the first 10 months of 2023. Expect Ola Electric, which recently launched its refreshed S1 series of e-scooters and has already garnered over 75,000 bookings, to maintain the strong momentum in the months ahead.

TVS Motor Co, with 15,729 units, saw flat sales – with just 0.93 percent MoM growth (September 2023: 15,584 units), which gives it a market share of 22 percent, three percentage points more than the 19 percent share it had in July. In September, the iQube rode past the cumulative 2 lakh sales milestone, 45 months since its launch in January 2020. In August, the company launched its premium EV flagship, the TVS X, priced at Rs 2.5 lakh, at a mega event in Dubai.

Interestingly, Bajaj Auto, which has sizeably ramped up production of the Chetak scooter and is also expanding its network, sold 8,519 Chetaks in October, up 20 percent on September’s 7,097 units. This is Bajaj Auto’s second-best monthly performance (9,983 units in May 2023) and takes it ahead of Ather Energy. The latter though retains its third position with cumulative 10-month sales of over 88,390 units versus Bajaj’s 49,077 units.

Ather Energy saw retail sales of 8,113 units, which constituted 13.45 percent MoM growth compared to September’s 7,151 units. Ather Energy is among the EV manufacturers making moves to enable easy finance to potential buyers.

In fifth position is Greaves Electric Mobility, which has delivered its best monthly performance – 4,050 units – in October that's a 12 percent increase MoM. Greaves’ sister EV arm, Ampere Vehicles, is ranked 15th with October sales of 352 units. Combined sales of the two EV divisions would add up to 4,402 units, which still puts in fifth position.

Meanwhile, a hard-charging Hero MotoCorp, with its Vida V1 e-scooter, has gone on to take sixth rank. With a total of 1,899 units sold in October, Hero MotoCorp registered 255 percent MoM growth on a low September 2023 base of 532 units. The strong performance is likely due to aggressive marketing on Hero’s part.

Growth outlook

While the sales momentum for the electric two-wheeler industry was solid in October, expect November 2023 to be far better with Diwali and Dhanteras coming up in the first fortnight itself.

The sustained demand for last-mile deliveries across urban India as well as in towns is acting as a sales catalyst for cargo-transporting electric two-wheelers, with a number of EV manufacturers benefitting from bulk orders. India's improving economy, a marked uptick in consumer sentiment, along with makers offering sweetened new product deals in the festive season to capture the growing consumer shift to EVs should see India EV Inc maintain a solid growth path in the months to come.

Meanwhile, overall EV sales across segments have crossed the 1.2 million mark in the first 10 months of this year, which calls for an altogether different analysis. Stay plugged in.