India witnessed record-high electric two-wheeler sales in March 2024 which crossed 1,36,000 units, up around 50 per cent year-on-year (YoY), and the full financial year saw sales touch nearly 9,42,088 units up around 30 per cent YoY, mainly on account of customers pre-buying coupled with year-end discounts.
In March of 2023, India's EV two-wheeler sales were recorded at around 85,000 units; March 2022 saw sales touching 54,000 units, as per data available at the Vahan website on April 1, 2024.
"EV two-wheeler penetration for March 2024 stood at 8.9 per cent vs 5.7 per cent in February 2024. FY24 penetration stood at 5.4 per cent vs 4.5 per cent in FY23," said an analysis report by Elara Capital.
The record numbers come at a crucial time, as subsidies under the second phase of the FAME Scheme (FAME II) will cease to be eligible for e-vehicles sold after March 31, 2024.
However, the market has been witnessing a stabilisation despite a subsidy reduction. In fact, last month, India’s electric two-wheeler (E2W) sales increased by nearly 24 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) to 81,963 units in February of 2024 and crossed 8,00,000 units in the 11-month period of FY24, as per the data available on Vahan portal.
To be sure, Vahan only records the total number of sales registered and not the bookings. It also does not take into account low-speed E2W sales and excludes the data for Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.
FAME India Scheme is a government subsidy scheme under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) and stands for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles
The Central government reduced the budgetary allocation for the FAME scheme by nearly 44 percent to Rs 2,671 crore for FY25, which industry players predict could result in a slowdown in the adoption of EVs.
"The market is definitely maturing, however some players did enjoy the benefit of FAME scheme, we will now see how the market reacts to the end of subsidy, we are still awaiting more clarity on FAME III," an EV auto industry expert told Moneycontrol.
EV sales touched the lowest number at 45,000 units in June 2023 as the government announced a reduction of the FAME subsidy from 40% to 15% on June 1.
Race for market share continues
For March 2024, Ola Electric retained its top spot with highest registrations at 53,000 units commanding 37 per cent market share, followed by TVS Motors at 19.4 per cent, Bajaj Auto at 13.1 per cent, Ather Energy at 12.6 per cent, and Hero MotoCorp at 3.0 per cent.
For the full financial year 2024, Ola Electric had the highest market share at 34.6 per cent followed by TVS Motors at 19.4 per cent, Ather Energy at 11.5 per cent, Bajaj Auto at 11.3 per cent and Greaves Electric (formerly Ampere) at 5.8 per cent, as per Vahan data.
“There couldn’t have been a better year-end for us to FY24 with our registrations zooming past the 53,000 mark in March...The fact that we recorded almost 1.20 lakh registrations in Q4 FY24 alone speaks volumes of our robust scooter portfolio, and we aim to continue the growth trajectory and contribute further to India’s electrification journey," said Anshul Khandelwal, Chief Marketing Officer, Ola Electric Technologies Private Limited.
Ola Electric has also recently announced a series of initiatives spanning products, services, charging networks and battery warranty to accelerate the adoption of EVs.
TVS Motors emerged as the second largest player with March sales of around 24,000 units. Ather has recorded a sales of 16,600 units and Bajaj has recorded a sales of 16,313 units.
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