Electric car sales in India fell for the sixth straight month in September by 7.76% dragged down by market leader, Tata Motors, even as e-two wheelers continued on the growth path advancing by a brisk 40.45% as the ‘legacy’ manufacturers saw a steep climb in volumes at a fast pace, shows retail sales data based on the vehicle registration numbers released by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) on Tuesday. The robust growth in e-two-wheelers improved their penetration to 7.5% during the month, up 2.6% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, charging infrastructure woes, issues related to product quality and range anxiety dissuaded buyers, pulled down the e-car sales to 5874 units in September over 6368 units in the corresponding month. Meanwhile, led by Ola Electric, the e-two-wheeler sales continued to surge despite curtailment in government subsidy to 90,0007 units during the month compared to 64086 units in the same month a year ago.
Sales at Tata Motors that controls 62% of the e-PV market fell 16.28% to 3621 units over the year-ago period. This is the lowest since the company got into the EV segment. It’s despite new model introduction- Curvv.ev, lucrative consumer offers, and price cut introduced by the maker of Nexon.ev and Tiago.ev. The company now has a portfolio of five EV models.
In a sharp contrast—though on a low base, most of the other manufacturers saw an uptick in their volumes month-on-month as well year-on-year. JSW MG Motor, the second largest in the pecking order, saw its retails go up 9.16% to 977 units. Mahindra & Mahindra that sells only the XUV4OO in the segment also saw its sales increase jump to 454 units from 358 earlier. Sales at PCA Automobiles, which sells the e-C3, rose to 386 units from 143 units a year ago. BYD, BMW and Mercedes also saw their EV sales inch up over a year ago.
Among the e-two-wheeler makers, Bajaj Auto which sells the electric scooters under the Chetak brand, gained significant grounds overtaking TVS Motor as the second largest in volume terms. In the process it has also narrowed the volume gap with the market leader Ola Electric. Bajaj sold 19,137 units compared to 18108 units of TVS Motor. The gap between the no.1 and No. 2 reduced to 5542 units in September 2024 as compared to 10811 units a year earlier. All the top five e-2w manufacturers saw their retails advance at a fast clip. Cumulatively they account for 88% of the market. Ola that has seen its month-on-month sales drop by 10.31% is under pressure from Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor.
Ola’s share in the market at 27.4% in September was the lowest in 16 months. Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, TVS and Ather’s market share further rose in September to an all-time high of 60.3%, according to a research note of Elara Capital. “Expect this share to rise further with ramp-up in distribution and launch of cheaper-priced scooters, especially incrementally from TVS Motor. Also, the market leader in ICE, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India (HMSI) is yet to launch an EV scooter, which could reduce Ola’s share further,” Jay Kale, analyst at Elara wrote.
