Okinawa is emerging as one of the top electric scooter makers in the country
The past couple of weeks brought most business to a halt, and manufacturers are now limping forward in limited capacity. Okinawa has sold more than 1,000 electric scooters within a month of resuming ops once the government relaxed rules last month.
At present, Okinawa isn’t functioning at 100 percent. The auto manufacturer was able to achieve its sales targets post the initial lockdowns by operating at 60-70 percent touchpoints of its 350+ dealers across the country.
Okinawa resumed partial operations on May 11, 2020 with 25 percent workforce, and under strict guidance of safety measures for COVID 19 prevention. Over 1200 vehicles have been dispatched in the first month of operation following complete lockdown. It’s not specified how many of these orders are current orders, and how many dispatches are for orders pending owing to lockdown in March.
The situation resulted in the entirety of the Indian auto industry selling no vehicles through April 2020. With economic activity lull, and its outcome devastating, government directives now allow for business ops in strict aberrance to safety protocols despite the number of cases having recently tipped the 10,000 mark on a daily basis this past week.
“We have witnessed a good demand in the market for Electric scooters. We have retailed over 1000 electric scooters despite limited dealerships operational during the current COVID 19 outbreak. This has indeed encouraged us, as we understand that the market is gaining its strength back.
We also anticipate that, due to COVID-19 outbreak, a lot of people would want to avoid using public transport, which might increase the demand of new vehicles for Personal Mobility. With the increasing awareness around the economic viability of electric vehicles, we might witness a sharp inclination towards EVs among the buyers,” said Mr. Jeetender Sharma- MD, Okinawa.
In adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols, Okinawa has issued an advisory to its dealership network to maintain safety measures as business resumes. All products are sanitized at multiple points, from assembly at the manufacturing unit to dealer partners receiving bikes at a dealership. For customer and dealership staff safety, proper thermal screening is conducted at all dealerships.
Okinawa is bullish on demand for EVs. In the high-speed electric scooter segment, it’s the only manufacturer to have touched the 10,000 unit sales mark. Dealer margin has been revised from 8 percent to 11 percent so the dealer network ca be profitable.
