EV sales see 1.8 percent drop MoM despite festival season consumer push; ICE sales fare better with 18 percent increase (YoY)

Despite strong consumer demand during the ten-day Ganesh Chaturthi festive period, where retail sales of ICE two-wheelers increased by 18.8 percent year on year (YoY), retail sales of electric two wheelers (e2w) decreased by 1.8 percent month on month (MoM).

E2w registrations were down from 62,683 units in August to 61,576 units in September 2023, as per the data seen from the government's Vahaan portal.

Sales of ICE two-wheelers were at 4,67,050 units for the current 10-day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi period, up by 18 percent (YoY) as compared to 3,95,394 units for the same period in 2022.

Ola Electric maintained its pole position with 18,138 units as opposed to 18,716 units in August, followed by TVS in second place with 14,917 units as compared to 15,473 units in August 2023, a 3.6 percent decrease in sales. 

Sales of Ather Energy’s electric two-wheelers also witnessed a dip of three percent to 6,892 units in the current month over 7,126 in the last month.

Uday Narang, Founder of two to three wheeler manufacturer Omega Seiki Mobility (OSM), spoke to Autocar Professional about the drop in sales, despite the festive season seeing strong growth in the ICE two-wheeler category.

According to Narang, the market is experiencing a minor correction after falling to an all-time low of 46,056 units in June. This fall was following the reduction of the FAME II subsidy by the government. The market then rebounded to 50,000 and 60,000 unit range in the last two months.

Admitting that the festive demand has seen a strong uptick in sales of ICE two-wheelers where states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Chattisgarh, Narang of OSM said, that the current month has witnessed good growth overall for two and three-wheelers.

"India’s EV Story is strong and such minor dips are part of the customers resetting their purchase decisions for the upcoming festive period which falls from October to December this year. I expect the electric two-wheeler market to bounce back but it will be tough to reach earlier highs" he said.

Narang indicated that electric two-wheelers which are around  0.8 million in the current year will easily cross 1.1 million in 2024, and reach close to 15 million by 2030 as the bulk of India's target of reaching  20 million units by 2030 will be achieved by electric two and three-wheelers.

Bajaj Auto was one of the few bright spots in September, with sales of 6,729 Chetak EVs coming out as one of the companies with higher sales, representing a 3.32 percent increase over its 6,573 sold in August 2023.

Aside from Bajaj, Hero Electric, which introduced premium scooters under the A2b brand, has also begun to show signs of recovery, with vehicle registrations increasing 4.2 percent MoM to 816 units in September, up from 783 units in September and 779 units in August

Hero Electric which has been impacted by the pending FAME II subsidy issue has seen its sales decline from over 6,400 units in January this year to under 1,000 units

Okinawa Electric also has seen its fortunes decline after its subisides were stopped continued  treading into negative territory for September with sales down by 14 percent from close to 2,000 units in August to 1,724 units in September 2023.

OSM Founder said that India's Electric vehicle (EV) sales have climbed the one million mark in less than nine months in 2023, a milestone that took an entire year in 2022 and the market will continue to grow for all categories which includes three wheelers and passenger cars.  

According to the Government Vahaan portal, nearly 10,37,011 EVs were registered across India in the second week of September, accounting for 6.4 percent of total automobile sales in the country this year.

In 2023, two-wheelers accounted for 56 percent of EV sales, followed by three-wheelers and passenger vehicles.