EV sales set to rise significantly in 2022

Hyderabad Market for electric vehicles being on priority list for commuters as they cut down on fuel spends, the total sales of E2W, including high-speed (HS) and low-speed E2W, in the 12-month period January-December, 2021 increased by 132 per cent over the corresponding year 2020. The industry registered sales of 23,3971 E2W as against 10,0736 units sold in 2020. Vehicles having speeds greater than 25km per hour requiring a full license, registered a 425 per cent growth, while the low-speed E2Ws (less than 25km/hour, no license, no registration) grew only by 24 per cent.

The low-speed vehicles had negative growth in the last two quarters of 2021. The market share of the low-speed segment used to be upwards of 70 per cent in all the previous years, and that has dipped to less than 15 per cent in the last quarter of October-December, 2021.

Sohinder Gill, Director General, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) said, "We haven't seen better days than the last few months in the entire EV journey. In the last 15 years, we collectively sold around one million E2W, e-three wheelers, e-cars, and e-buses, and we will most likely sell the same one million units in just one year beginning January 22. The recent positive changes in EV policy through FAME 2 are a game-changer and a decisive move by the government to ensure a cleaner and greener transportation sector, reducing reliance on expensive and contaminated liquid fuel. Customers have now started shifting in large numbers from petrol two-wheelers to electric ones due to attractive prices, lower running costs, and lower maintenance. Going by the recent monthly trends, the next 12 months may see 5 to 6 times the growth over the previous 12 months."

The E2W market is divided into three segments, low speed, city speed, and high speed. While the low-speed segment is waning, the city speed segment (up to 50 km/hr) is gaining traction due to attractive pricing and lower replacement costs of batteries. Adoption in the high-speed segment, i.e., 70 km/hr, is low but may increase in the next few years as the battery prices come down.

Gill explained the confusing nomenclature used for electric two-wheelers in India by saying, currently, all-electric two-wheelers sold in India are called electric bikes or e-bikes, but in fact, they are either electric motorcycles (around 2 per cent of the market) or electric scooters (98%) that can comfortably seat two people and look like their petrol two-wheeler counterparts. There are no e-scooters like the ones seen in North America or Europe on which a rider can stand and go short distances. Electric cycle sales in India (popularly known as e-bikes globally) are also negligible and just beginning to happen. However, in the next 2 to 3 years, we will have products across all segments, ranging from e-scooters, e-motorcycles, and e-cycles from large and organised players. In four to five years, we can now confidently predict that around 30 per cent of the two-wheeler market will be electric.