Subsidies offered by many state governments across India on purchase of electric vehicles have given rise to EV sales
Significant price cuts have been seen across the electric vehicle segment following subsidies offered by various state governments. This along with FAME II subsidy revisions by the Central Government along with ever escalating fuel prices, has led to increased demand in this segment.
Especially talking about the e-scooter segment, Ola Electric has received resounding success for its electric scooter with 1 lakh bookings in 24 hours. Revolt sold out its entire lot for July in 10 minutes and sales of the Hero Optima electric scooter that once hovered around the 1,500 unit mark, escalated to 8,000 unit sales in the past month.
Okinawa Sales Cross 15k In Q2 2021
Ever since the new subsidies have been announced by various governments, the electric two wheeler market has received renewed interest. Okinawa Autotech claims to be the fastest going EV brand in India. They have now announced their sales numbers for Q2 2021.
In April 2021, the brand sold 4,467 electric scooters, EVs while in May 2021, the numbers increased to 5,649. It went even higher in June 2021 to 5,860 units. This brought the total sales numbers for last quarter to 15,976 units. In the coming months, sales are expected to be even higher, thanks to economy opening up as well as increase in fuel prices.
| Month | Okinawa EV Sales |
|---|---|
| Apr-21 | 4,467 |
| May-21 | 5,649 |
| Jun-21 | 5,860 |
| Total | 15,976 |
Okinawa says, the company has expanded its presence with a huge customer base in the Southern states of India like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra with the highest number of buyers in Madya, Bangalore, Kanchipuram, Nellore & Pune. Amongst its range of scooters, iPraise + along with Praise Pro were the most favoured EV two wheelers, built with style and high speed features. They topped the best seller chart leading to a great expansion in numbers.
Subsidies and Related Price Cuts
Incentives introduced by Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan Governments along with FAME II subsidy revisions by the Central Government has seen prices of electric scooters come down substantially. Premium offerings such as Hero Optima, Okinawa Praise Pro, Ather 450X, Ampere Magnus and Zeal are now cheaper by Rs 18,000-Rs 20,000 and in the past 4 weeks itself, sales have touched 18,000 units.
Following these subsidies, e-scooters which were in the range of Rs 75,000-80,000 are now in a sub Rs 50,000 price bracket. For example, Ampere Electric has cut prices of its e-scooter by Rs 27,000 in Gujarat. Accordingly, Magnus scooter which as priced at Rs 74,990 has now come down to Rs 47,990 while price of Zeal scooter has been reduced from Rs 68,990 to Rs 41,990.
Okinawa has noted a two fold increase in inquiries with most being for its top of the line Praise Pro variant. High demand is noted from buyers in Madya and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu, Nellore in AP and Pune in Maharashtra. Along with rising demand for e-scooters, Tata Motors has also received increased bookings for the Nexon EV and the company is in talks with suppliers to help boost production.
Bajaj, TVS and Hero MotoCorp EV Plans
Thanks to rising fuel prices along with government initiatives and revised FAME II subsidy, several mainstream automakers are revising their electric two wheeler plans. Two wheeler makers Bajaj and TVS have plans to set up electric vehicle plants. Hero MotoCorp also has plans to becomes the next major EV player with Rs 10,000 crore budget allocation over the next 5-7 years along with Gogoro of Taiwan. The company has also recently unveiled the eMaestro electric scooter based on the petrol powered Maestro range.
Set to make a foray into this segment is also Suzuki India with the Burgman electric scooter. TVS, currently has the iQube but also plans launch of Creon e-scooter while Simple One electric scooter will be unveiled on 15 August. Honda’s Benly-e is also an upcoming launch while Hero Electric already has quite a few EV models but seeks to improve on its current fleet with the AE-29.
