While July was a closely fought battle between Hero Electric and Okinawa in the electric two-wheeler space, August saw the former take a more commanding lead, racking up 10,476 new registrations, compared to Okinawa’s 8,554 registrations for the same month. While both companies saw new registrations grow over the previous month, Hero Electric’s growth (17 percent over last month's 8,953) was larger than that of Okinawa (5.7 percent over last month's 8,094).
As was the case last month, third place went to Ampere, which went slightly above its previous figure, registering 6,396 new vehicles in August compared to 6,313 in July (a slight growth of 1.3 percent). With its Gen-3 450X now on the market and its production capabilities steadily on the rise, Ather had a great month in August, with 5,239 new vehicles registered (up significantly from last month's 1,283, but that figure is down to the transition from Gen-2 to Gen-3). This allowed it to edge out principal rival Ola Electric, which registered 3,421 new scooters in August (down from 3,856 in July).
All registration figures in this story are from the central government’s VAHAN portal, which does not contain data for Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh. As per Ather’s own figures, the company sold 6,410 scooters in August, marking its best-ever monthly sales. Ola, meanwhile, recently re-launched its entry-level S1 e-scooter, which features less range and features than its flagship S1 Pro, at a more affordable price. The company claims 10,000 units of the S1 have been purchased so far, with deliveries slated to begin from September 7. It will be interesting to observe how much of a boost the new model can provide.
The TVS iQube has been seeing a steady uptick in sales, and as per figures from the company, 4,418 units of the electric scooter were sold in August, placing it neatly between the Ather and the Ola. The scooter recently received a shake-up to its variant lineup, and a more affordable starting price, which is sure to have helped boost sales figures.
The other legacy manufacturer in the electric two-wheeler space, Bajaj, lagged behind a little, selling 2,554 units of the Chetak in August (as per industry sources). The Chetak and iQube have historically been quite closely matched in sales figures, but the recent revamping of the iQube appears to have given TVS an edge. This is evident in the fact that the company only managed to sell only 649 iQubes in August last year, but managed 581 percent more this time around.
The leading electric motorcycle manufacturer was Revolt, whose 1,646 registrations for August are considerably lower (29 percent down) than the 2,318 it managed last month. Another company that saw a decline is Pure EV, which registered 875 vehicles in August, down from 997 in July. Recent entrants Bounce and Tork registered 580 and 60 units respectively, closing matching their figures for the previous month.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
