Festive demand may boost sales of e-scooters: Report

The demand for petrol scooters and motorcycles in the festive season may be dull, but positive consumer sentiment hovering over electric two wheelers may see a bump in their sales, according to a report in The Times of India. According to top electric two wheeler companies like Hero, Okinawa and Ampere, due to higher fuel prices and affordability owing to subsidies, urban buyers opt for electric vehicles and are already witnessing a 25-30% festival surge.

Petrol two wheelers are facing a tough time as they are dependent on rural markets, which are yet to recover from the pandemic, as per auto analysts. As people opt for personal transport, both electric vehicles and Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICE) have grown in the top 10 cities, but the sales have been less than one-tenth and are nearly 30% of electric vehicle sales, they said.

The slump in ICE sales is due to a hiccup in rural sentiment, analysts say. As per auto research firm, JATO Dynamics, the top ten two wheeler markets, for the period between January to September, saw sales of petrol two wheelers increase just under 7% to 7,94,383 units this year as compared to 7,44,191 units last year. Also, sales of petrol two wheelers were down by 16% YoY in September.

On the contrary, electric two wheeler sales increased by fourfold from 5,401 units last year to 21,850 units this year.

Two wheeler companies ramp up production

Due to this sudden surge, e-two wheeler companies are ramping up production, with Ola and Ampere bringing in serious scale into the business. Last month, Ola claimed it had clocked Rs 1,100 crore worth of sales in a two-day window.

Hero electric, which sells 10,000 units per day on an average has reported a 20% increase in sales in the last six months, and is expecting a rise of 25-30%.

Okinawa has reported a 30% increase in demand this month as against September. Ampere on the other hand has recorded its best sale this year in October and November.