Electric two-wheeler OEM Okinawa has announced retail sale of over 1,000 scooters within a month of it opening showrooms, following the governmental relaxation of lockdown rules on economic activity. Okinawa claims it has already despatched over 1,200 vehicles in the first month of operation since then. Good news then for EV makers because it indicates an improving consumer sentiment towards EVs.

The company partially resumed operations across dealerships on May 11, 2020 with 25 percent workforce and strict safety measures for Covid 19 prevention. Okinawa, like all other OEMs in the country, issued strict advisory to its dealership network on maintaining safety measures as they resume operations. All the products are sanitised before getting despatched from the assembly at the manufacturing unit and dealer partners sanitise them after receiving the products at their dealership.  

No. 1 in high-speed  e-scooter sales in FY2020
Meanwhile, as Autocar Professional’s recent analysis revealed, Okinawa also tops the chart in high-speed electric scooter sales in India in FY2020 and the only EV player to cross 10,000 figure in India. Okinawa sold a total of 10,133 unitslast fiscal and saw strong demand in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. For Hero Electric, the demand came in from Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Meanwhile, for Hero Electric, its strong dealership network across the country helped create a relatively expansive demand base. 

In terms of monthly average sales of high-speed electric two-wheelers, Okinawa sold 844 units per month, Hero Electric 617 units while Ather Energy clocked 242 units. Ampere sold 227 and Revolt totalled 177 units each month in FY2020.

“We have witnessed a good demand in the market for electric scooters. We have retailed over 1,000 electric scooters despite limited dealerships operational during the current Covid-19 outbreak. This has indeed encouraged us, as we understand that the market is gaining its strength back. We also anticipate that, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, a lot of people would want to avoid using public transport, which might increase the demand of new vehicles for personal mobility. With the increasing awareness around the economic viability of electric vehicles, we might witness a sharp inclination towards EVs among the buyers,” said Jeetender Sharma, managing director, Okinawa.

Okinawa further plans to accelerate its marketing activities to spread the awareness about EV adoption. Interestingly, the EV maker has also announced a hike in dealer margin from 8 percent to 11 percent to enable its dealer network to make more profits.