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The electric two-wheeler industry is showing signs of revival, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).
While the sales of high-speed electric two-wheelers declined by 25.6 per cent between April and September 2020 on the back of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the month of September saw a 72 per cent year-on-year increase in sales in this category, said the SMEV on Wednesday. The upcoming festive season will help OEMs to recover what they lost in the first two quarters of this year due to the lockdown, it said.
The registration of high-speed electric two-wheelers stood at 2,544 units in September 2020, as against the 1,473 vehicles sold during September 2019, marking a 72 per cent increase.
SMEV has collated the sales data from the government records of the Vahan platform.
Between April 2020 and September 2020, the industry registered sales of 7,552 high-speed electric two-wheelers as against 10,161 units sold in the same period last year. Sohinder Gill, Director General, SMEV, said that this is due to the lockdown enforced to curb the spread of the virus. “However, the industry has been quickly able to enter the positive curve soon after the government announced the unlock process,” he said.
The first six months of this financial year has been a roller-coaster ride for the EV industry, SMEV further noted. However, there has been a revival post the lifting of the lockdown restrictions, it said.
“We are experiencing huge customers’ interest in greener vehicles as they have seen how the environment looks like when no fuel-guzzling vehicles are running on roads. The upcoming festive season will add to the pent up demand and help OEMs to recover what they lost in the quarter 1 and 2 due to Covid lockdown,” said Gill.
Future urban mobility post Covid-19
Lately, there has been positive news on the EV policy front from the central and state governments, that has led to greater confidence amongst OEMs, component suppliers and investors, said Gill. “We look forward to a big push from the government to set right what went wrong with Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles-2 (FAME-2) so as to assist demand which is already showing some green shoots. Some of the measures that could be adopted are removal of the 'range criteria' from two wheelers for subsidy, reduction of GST on batteries from 18 % to 5% when sold separately, mandating delivery businesses to convert their fleets to EVs, promote electric mobility under ‘Swatchh Bharat Campaign,” Gill added.
As for the outlook for the financial year, SMEV said that it remains positive as it hopes that the recent move by the central government allowing EVs to be sold without the battery, as well as the Delhi government’s announcement of the EV policy would further help the industry to move forward. Also, extending the PMP guidelines would allow the industry to ramp-up production and strengthen the local component market, it added.
Should govt promote EV battery swapping?
1.The data doesn’t include low-speed segment
2. The above data has been collated from the Govt records of Vahan
OEM wise Market Share Data from April’20 to September’20 as retrieved from VAHAN
Source: SMEV Research
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