Buying demand slowing down for EVs

Mumbai: Safety and performance of electric scooters remain top concerns for customers amid a spate of fire incidents in these vehicles recently, which has prompted consumers to hold back on their plans to purchase e-scooters, according to an online survey.

Moreover, the percent age of people who were not convinced about the safety and performance of an electric scooter rose to 32 per cent in August this year, compared to just 2 per cent in the same month a year ago, as per the survey conducted by online platform LocalCircles. The survey received responses from over 11,000 household consumers from more than 292 districts, with 47 per cent of the respondents from tier-I and 33 per cent from tier-II cities. The rest 20 per cent respondents were from tier-3/4 and rural districts, as per LocalCircles.

One of the top concerns of the people continues to be the fires reported in electric scooters. Consumers of various brands of these vehicles have reported fire incidents, which many of the manufacturers have attributed to the battery, LocalCircles said. While standards are being developed for these scooters and batteries, with multiple government stakeholders involved, the process is time consuming, it stated.