Country’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), on Thursday said the company has started actual drawings of its first electric scooter, which will be be launched in the next few years, as its sales have been hit by the EV market in recent years.

“We will launch multiple models (electric scooters) because only one or two models are not sufficient for various kinds of customers. The platform is safe, it should be simple because the internal combustion engine (ICE) of the motorcycle segment also has smaller cc engines and more than 1000cc, too ... e-mobility must be simplified,” Atsushi Ogata, President, MD & CEO, HMSI, told reporters here on the sidelines of the 62nd SIAM Annual Convention.

On the targetted market share in the EV segment, Ogata said if by 2030 the total market reaches 30 lakh units, the target will be 30 per cent. “The estimation is till 2030 ...if it reaches 3 million units, why not 30 per cent market share — which means 1 million units,” he said.

Turnaround point

On market conditions, Ogata said the two-wheeler sales could take around five years to come back to the peak levels of 2018-19, with rural market still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 impact. He said sales of gearless scooters like the Activa was hit as schools, colleges were shut and professionals had to work from home. Also, with some other reasons like the income of rural households not going up, there has been a gradual price increase of two-wheelers over the last few years, leading to a decline in sales.

However, he noted there has been some positive momentum in urban markets since April this year due to the easing of Covid restrictions. It may be noted that the domestic two-wheeler wholesales in 2018-19 stood at 2,44,42,366 units, which came down to 1,34,66,412 units in 2021-22. HMSI’s volumes were the highest at 61,23,877 units in 2018-19.

Published on September 15, 2022