Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube electric scooter sales have grown over 10 times in 2021, compared to 2020
Electric scooter sales in India have been noting a marked increase over the past year, following ever increasing fuel prices. New entrants have entered the fray that include recently launched Ola and the Simple One, competing with more established rivals from Hero Electric, Okinawa, Ampere, Ather, Bajaj Chetak, TVS iQube, etc.
In 2021, sales of Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube have noted significant increase over sales in the same period of the previous year. Bajaj Chetak sales stood at 1,991 units in 2022, up from 332 units sold in 2021. TVS iQube sales increased to 2,255 units up from 71 units in the corresponding period. Total sales of these two, increased from about 400 in 2020 to over 4k in 2021 (Jan-July period).
Chetak, iQube Sales Increase
Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube, these two electric scooters have seen widescale acceptance by buyers in India over the past few months. Sales in June-July period have been the highest. Both scooters have posted a total of over 1,000 sales in both these months.
Sales of both e-scooters could have been higher, but they currently on sale only in a few cities only. Bajaj Chetak sales only recently expanded to Nagpur, Aurangabad, Mysore and Mangalore while more cities will be added in the coming months. By end of 2021, Bajaj expects that the Chetak will go on sale across 22 new cities and by March 2022, Chetak will be available in 40 cities.
TVS iQube, on the other hand, is currently available in Pune, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Coimbatore. It is expected to go on sale in more cities of Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata soon. iQube will also be available in a number of Tier I cities.
Electric Scooter Demand
Not only Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube, all electric vehicles are registering increase in sales / demand. Be it cars or two wheelers, EVs are much in demand. Boost in demand is due to multiple reasons. Top two reasons which has boosted EV demand in recent months – is the increase in petrol price and increase in subsidy thanks to FAME scheme and state govt incentives.
OEMs are currently working towards increasing their manufacturing capacity, to meet the growing demand of EVs. Bajaj will setup new plant in Chakan near Pune for EVs. TVS has Rs 1,000 crore investment plan for EVs. Hero Electric is increasing production capacity to 10 lakh units. Ampere, Okinawa also has plans to increase production of EVs. Basically everywhere you look, all are trying to be a part of the EV boom.
Currently, many buyers are staying away from EV due to reasons like higher price, little to no availability of charging network, etc. But these concerns will not remain for long. With increase in production, rise in sales, battery prices are expected to decline in coming years. With more people buying EVs, network of EV chargers is also expected to grow at a similar rate. This will boost EV sales across segments. EVs are likely to replace ICEs at a faster rate than expected.
