A look at electric two-wheelers sales thus far in April (as of April 17, 2024) presents a rather grim picture. Barring a handful – Ola Electric, Revolt Intellicorp, Pure Energy and Lectrix EV – none of the OEMs are expected to even match their sales performance for the same month last year.
The recent revision in subsidies for electric two-wheelers under the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme (EMPS) 2024 and the erstwhile FAME 2 scheme is one of the key factors affecting sales.
The FAME 2 scheme initially provided a subsidy of Rs 10,000 per kilowatt hour (kWh), which was later hiked to Rs 15,000 per kWh, with a maximum cap of 40% of the vehicle cost. This saw many models getting subsidised by up to Rs 60,000 per vehicle. This was later capped to a maximum of Rs 15,000, and with the EMPS scheme, it has been further reduced to Rs 10,000 per vehicle.
Kapil Shelke, Founder & CEO, Tork Motors told Financial Express Online, “Under the EMPS, the subsidy on Kratos R has now been reduced to Rs 10,000 from Rs 22,500 under the previous FAME II scheme revision. This certainly impacts on the base price of the product and every manufacturer will be affected. The extent of the subsidy cut depends on the specification of the offerings and it is upon the OEMs to decide whether they wish to increase prices or absorb this price hike to remain competitive.”
Ravneet Phokela. Chief Business Officer, Ather Energy said, “Currently, there is a Rs 10,000 subsidy available on electric two-wheelers. The biggest disruption occurred when it was reduced from a maximum of Rs 60,000 to Rs 22,000. Even though it was great to receive a higher subsidy from the government, we knew it was unsustainable. We believe that the FAME subsidy will be available for a couple more years so that the cost structure of an electric vehicle will be more in line with that of an internal combustion engine scooter.”
The sales trend for electric two-wheelers at the start of FY2025 looks rather muted. Ola Electric managed to sell 16,107 units, averaging sales of almost 947.5 units a day. Ather Energy with 1,478 units saw just 19 percent of its sales volume in the first 17 days, averaging 86.9 unit sales a day versus 260.1 unit sales for the same period last year. RattanIndia Enterprises-owned Revolt Motors surprisingly continued to make smart gain albeit a low base. It sold 403 electric motorcycles in April 2024, clocking sales of 23.7 units a day, compared to 17.5 units for the same period last year.
For the unversed, the FAME 2 scheme initially provided a subsidy of Rs 10,000 per kilowatt hour (kWh), which was later hiked to Rs 15,000 per kWh, with a max cap of 40% of the vehicle cost. This saw many models getting subsidised by upto Rs 60,000 per vehicle.
This was later capped to a maximum of Rs 15,000, and with the EMPS scheme this has been further reduced to Rs 10,000 per vehicle.
| Company | April ’24* | April ’23 | % of last year sales | Avg sales per day in April ’24 | Avg sales per day in April ’23 | Market share ’24 | Market share ’23 |
| Ola Electric | 16,107 | 22,068 | 73% | 947.5 | 735.6 | 82.93 | 54.85 |
| Ather Energy | 1,478 | 7,802 | 19% | 86.9 | 260.1 | 7.61 | 19.39 |
| Tork | 29 | 84 | 35% | 1.7 | 2.8 | 0.15 | 0.21 |
| Simple Energy | 24 | 0 | NA | 1.4 | 0 | 0.12 | 0 |
| River Mobility | 86 | 0 | NA | 5.1 | 0 | 0.44 | 0 |
| Revolt | 403 | 526 | 77% | 23.7 | 17.5 | 2.07 | 1.31 |
| Pure Energy | 224 | 505 | 44% | 13.2 | 16.8 | 1.15 | 1.26 |
| Okinawa Autotech | 288 | 3,218 | 9% | 16.9 | 107.3 | 1.48 | 8 |
| Odysse EV | 82 | 33 | 248% | 4.8 | 1.1 | 0.42 | 0.08 |
| Okaya | 141 | 1,563 | 9% | 8.3 | 52.1 | 0.73 | 3.88 |
| Lectrix EV | 321 | 746 | 43% | 18.9 | 24.9 | 1.65 | 1.85 |
| Komaki | 97 | 346 | 28% | 5.7 | 11.5 | 0.5 | 0.86 |
| Hero Electric | 139 | 3,333 | 4% | 8.2 | 111.1 | 0.72 | 8.28 |
| Ultraviolette Automotive | 4 | 9 | 44% | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.02 | 0.02 |
| Total | 19,423 | 40,233 | 48% | 1,142.50 | 1,341.10 | 100 | 100 |
Level-playing field
An analysis of electric two-wheeler sales across automakers over the last years, clearly indicates that the likes of Ola Electric, Bajaj Chetak and TVS iQube have started taking over market share from all other players.
In FY2024, Ola Electric sold 329,321 vehicles and increased its market share by almost 14 percent, having a lions 40 percent market share. Bajaj Chetak and TVS Motor Co with its iQube managed to increase their market share from 16.14 percent to 22.95 percent and 6.06 percent to 13.98 percent respectively.
| Company | FY ’24 | FY ’23 | Change (in units) | Change (in %) | Market share FY’24 | Market share FY’23 |
| Ola Electric | 329,321 | 152,792 | 176,529 | 116% | 40% | 26% |
| Ather Energy | 108,921 | 76,941 | 31,980 | 42% | 13% | 13% |
| Tork | 2,158 | 493 | 1,665 | 338% | 0.26% | 0.08% |
| Simple Energy | 403 | 0 | 403 | NA | 0.05% | 0.00% |
| River Mobility | 385 | 0 | 385 | NA | 0.05% | 0.00% |
| Revolt | 7,344 | 12,932 | -5,588 | -43% | 0.89% | 2.16% |
| Pure Energy | 6,977 | 11,557 | -4,580 | -40% | 0.84% | 1.93% |
| Okinawa Autotech | 20,874 | 95,938 | -75,064 | -78% | 2.50% | 16.00% |
| Odysse EV | 260 | 291 | -31 | -11% | 0.03% | 0.05% |
| Okaya | 14,034 | 13,175 | 859 | 7% | 1.70% | 2.20% |
| Lectrix EV | 14,914 | 8,111 | 6,803 | 84% | 1.80% | 1.35% |
| Komaki | 3,903 | 3,797 | 106 | 3% | 0.47% | 0.63% |
| Hero Electric | 12,095 | 89,878 | -77,783 | -87% | 1.46% | 15.01% |
| Ultraviolette Automotive | 247 | 0 | 247 | NA | 0.03% | 0.00% |
| TVS Motor Co* | 189,896 | 96,654 | 93,242 | 96% | 22.95% | 16.14% |
| Bajaj Chetak* | 115,702 | 36,260 | 79,442 | 219% | 13.98% | 6.06% |
| Total | 827,434 | 598,819 | 228,615 | 38% | 100% | 100% |
While there is growing acceptance for electric vehicles, the FAMEII scheme played a definitive role in furthering sales. “Keeping the price factor aside, FAME II was also for promoting products made in India and to encourage OEMs to develop and manufacture quality electric two-wheelers in India. This was intended to make India a hub for the developing and manufacturing high quality electric vehicles, in contrast to what China has been doing. With the kind of tech prowess we have cultivated over the past few years, Indian OEMs are on the right track for this. With the FAME II advantage gone, this will have a direct impact on the R&D efforts, since it will always be easier to import technology and assemble in India. This also impacts our current advantage to produce in India at lower cost and export our products to other countries, which is not fruitful for our economy in the long run,” explained Shelke.
Furthermore, he believes that if the subsidies are completely taken off, the EV industry is at risk of again being hoarded with cheap imported products, especially from China. “In the absence of PLI, Indian OEMs will further lose cost competitiveness. The subsidy is important to maintain a price differential between Indian products and imports, leading to faster adoption of products and overall growth of the industry,” concluded Shelke.
