Electric two-wheeler manufacturers sold 81,963 units in February 2024, which is 36 units more than January 2024 (81,927 units). In a field comprising nearly 170 players, six manufacturers continue to be the market leaders – Ola Electric, TVS Motor Co, Ather Energy, Bajaj Auto and Greaves Electric-Ampere Vehicles – and accounted for 71,428 units or 87 percent of the total sales. Interestingly, all of them other than Bajaj Auto have their manufacturing plants in Tamil Nadu.
Ola Electric: 33,722 units, 41 percent market share
Benefitting from a substantial price-reduction strategy that’s still ongoing, market leader Ola Electric sold a record 33,722 e-scooters last month, beating its previous best (January 2024: 32,216 units). Its market share in February 2024 has risen to 41 percent.
February also saw Ola introduce a new 8-year/80,000km extended warranty for its entire portfolio at no additional cost. The EV manufacturer plans to expand its all-India service centre network from the existing 414 facilities to around 600 by April 2024.
TVS Motor Co: 14,499 units, 18 percent market share
The iQube e-scooter continues to power TVS Motor Co’s sales momentum in the EV arena and in February 2024, 14,499 iQubes sold gave the company a market share of 18 percent.
The company, which expects two-wheeler EV sales in India to have a 30 percent market share by CY 2025, is targeting a big jump in the contribution of EV sales to its overall volumes over the next two years.
The company, which has expanded its EV sales programme to Nepal and Europe (from January 2024), is understood to be plotting a series of new EVs targeted at different customer segments with a complete portfolio offering between 5-25 kW of peak power.
Bajaj Auto: 11,618 units, 14 percent market share
Chakan-based Bajaj Auto, which entered the EV market in January 2020 (just like TVS), has retailed 11,618 Chetak e-scooters in February 2024. February numbers are the company’s second-best monthly sales yet, closely trailing November 2023’s tally of 11,833 units, and give Bajaj a 14 percent EV share in February.
With its February 2024 sales, Bajaj Auto has outsold Ather Energy (8,983 units) for the fifth month in a row. Bajaj’s last five-month sales of 53,794 units means it has sold 11,181 more e-scooters than Ather (42,613 units) in the same period. What has helped accelerate sales is ramped-up production and an expanded Bajaj Chetak network, currently in 141 cities across India, which is to be expanded to 250 cities by March 2024.
Ather Energy: 8,983 units, 11 percent market share
Bengaluru-based Ather Energy retailed 8,983 units in February 2024, which gives it a 11percent market share.
While Ather remains the No. 3 player on the cumulative sales front, it has lost the third-ranked position in monthly sales to a hard-charging Bajaj Auto. While it was ahead of Bajaj in the first six months of FY2024, Ather’s October 2023-February 2024 retails of 42,613 units are below Bajaj Auto’s 53,794 units for the same period.
Ather now plans to roll out its family scooter named Rizta on April 6, 2024. Expected to be priced between Rs 1.10 lakh-1.30 lakh (ex-showroom), Ather will expand its market reach with the Rizta that will compete with the TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak and Vida V1 Pro in the sub-Rs 1.30 lakh price bracket.
In terms of monthly sales for February 2024, fifth position goes to the Greaves Electric Mobility-Ampere Vehicle combined entity (2,606 units).
Hormazd Sorabjee
Anurag Chaturvedi
