Ola Electric continues as sales leader despite market crash

The electric two-wheeler market sold 45,734 e-scooters and e-bikes in June 2023, signifying an 56.6 percent drop from the industry’s best-ever performance in May 2023 (105,338 units). However, when compared to last year’s figures from June 2022 (44,381 units), it was a small 3 percent increase.

The reason for the MoM crash is the slashing of the FAME-II subsidy – the limit was reduced from Rs 15,000/kWh to Rs 10,000/kWh, and the cap was reduced from to 15 percent of the EV’s ex-factory price as against the 40 percent benefit extended earlier. This translated into significantly higher prices for electric bikes and scooters, which led to a crash in sales. Here is how each manufacturer fared.

Ola Electric: 17,585 units

Bengaluru-based startup Ola Electric continues to lead the market, but saw a sharp decline in sales, registering its lowest monthly sales of the year and dipping under the 20,000 mark for the first time since March. Despite this, it was the least affected of all the top players, registering a month-on-month decline of under 40%.

TVS: 7,791 units

The TVS iQube was on a roll in terms of sales and growth, having racked up an impressive figure of 20,397 sales in May 2023. The FAME-II subsidy cut came at a bad time for the e-scooter, and it resulted in a MoM decline of over 60 percent for iQube sales in June. Despite this, TVS held onto 2nd place on the EV 2W sales charts, though now a great deal further back from Ola Electric.

Ather Energy: 4,551 units

The FAME-II subsidy was vital to the likes of Ather Energy, who has been one of the more successful EV startup stories in India. And therefore, it is also one of the more severely affected by the cut, especially since its 450X e-scooter was already on the expensive side even when the subsidy was at full strength. As a result, Ather has seen a very sharp decline of 70 percent from its 15,407 units figure for May 2023.

Bajaj: 2,966 units

Bajaj Chetak sales just crossed the 10,000 units mark in May 2023, but the subsidy cut has brought that number back down to under 3,000 units in June. Once again, the Chetak is at the more expensive end of electric scooters sold in India, and it became over Rs 20,000 more expensive as a result of the subsidy cut.

Ampere: 1,602 units

With the launch of its first truly in-house product, the Primus, Ampere came close to reaching the 10,000 units mark in May 2023. However, prices for the Primus went up by close to Rs 40,000 as a result of the subsidy revision, and that had a direct impact on sales. Ampere saw a sharp MoM drop of over 80 percent.