 "Ola Electric")
Electric scooter registration took a beating in June 2023 as sales figures dipped to their lowest in 16 months and reached 35,641 units, The Economic Times (ET) reported citing data from the Vahan vehicle registration portal.
The dip in sales has come after electric two-wheeler manufacturers hiked the prices of their products by 15-18 per cent. The price hike was announced after a subsidy cut by the government.
What is the subsidy cut about?
The government introduced the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles (FAME) India scheme on April 1, 2019, for an initial period of three years. The government put aside a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for three years for this purpose.
The government reduced the maximum subsidy available under the scheme from Rs 60,000 to Rs 22,500.
This cut in subsidy came into force on June 1, 2023. Subsequently, OEMs decided to hike their prices, which affected the sales numbers.
Also Read : Ola announces price hikes for its electric scooters, to cost Rs 15k more
Implications for the shift towards electric mobility
While India remains the world's largest scooter and motorcycle market, the drop in sales may upset the government's plan to shift towards electric-power-based mobility.
On average, 1,363 units of e-scooters have been sold in June so far. Adjusting it for the remaining three days in the month reveals that the June sales volumes will likely be around 40,000-40,500 units.
These numbers suggest a month-on-month sales drop of 61 per cent. Taking an average of the sales in the last five months (January-May), e-scooter sales have averaged 77,228 units. June numbers are 47 per cent down this average, the ET report said.
Average daily e-scooter sales touched 3,391 in May but came down to 1,363 in June.
Notably, May sales zoomed as customers bought their electric scooters before the FAME subsidy cuts came into force on June 1.
What do the industry leaders have to say?
Expressing his thoughts on the drop in sales, Chief Business Officer at Ather Energy, Ravneet S Phokela, told ET that the industry expected a negative impact, but the drop in sales is slightly more than what was expected. Ather's sales were down by 35-40 per cent, however, Phokela said the sales would pick up next month.
Director-general of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, Sohinder, was quoted in the ET report as saying, "We may be heading for only 60 per cent achievement of the 2.3-million-unit target set by NITI Aayog due to the subsidy blockage getting accentuated."
