Ola Electric has regained the top spot among companies producing electric scooters after a gap of four months, according to data from the government website VAHAN.
The EV company stood at the fifth spot, behind Hero Electric, Okinawa, Ampere, and Ather Energy, in terms of e-scooter registrations in August, at 3,440. In September, it clocked 8,780 registrations (until September 30 afternoon).
The uptick was possible, analysts said, because of its strategy to bring in affordable models, below ~1 lakh, to expand the market; it launched its S1 model at ~99,000 on August 15 and the impact was discernible in September. Its earlier mainline model, S1 Pro, is priced around ~1.5 lakh on road, with subsidies.
Ather Energy too introduced two new models in July end – the 450X Gen 3 with a starting price of ~1.39 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) and the Ather 450 Plus Gen 3 at ~ 1.17 lakh — to rev up its low numbers earlier. The gambit worked: Its registrations are going strong and are up by around 10 per cent MoM at 5,811, bettering its best-ever performance in August.
“We have had a phenomenal H1FY23 with Ola emerging as market leader yet again, in less than a year of starting deliveries. The demand for Ola S1 has been soaring, and our customers are loving its wide range of features at a highly competitive price point. On the other hand, the S1 Pro alone commands the majority of the market share today and is doing its job really well in the premium segment. We are very confident that we will continue to top the charts even in the next quarter, especially with the upcoming festive season,” said an Ola Electric spokesperson.
Ather did not comment on VAHAN numbers.
Yet despite the growth witnessed by the two players, registrations of the top eight electric scooter manufacturers collectively, data for which is available on VAHAN, show only a marginal increase of half a per cent MoM in September (in August, registrations grew 10 per cent over July).
The other top electric scooter companies, including Hero Electric, Ampere, Okinawa, Pur, Being, and Revolt, have witnessed a decline in registrations. For Hero Electric, registrations fell sharply by 30 per cent in September, after breaching the 10,000 mark in August. From being Number One in the electric scooter space in August, it is not at the third spot – behind Ola Electric and Okinawa.
EV makers said in view of the festival season, they expect overall numbers to go up substantially. And companies like Greaves Electric Mobility (which owns Ampere) have projected that industry sales this financial year shall hit 700,000, from 250,000 in FY22.
In September, electric scooter registrations, for the first time, accounted for over 4 per cent of total two-wheelers registrations. It is the magic figure that EV players consider as the inflection point for a quicker conversion of the two-wheeler market from ICE to EV. The previous best was in April at 3.5 per cent.
However, the increased penetration has been largely because of a shrinking in the overall two-wheeler (ICE and electric, both scooters and mobikes) registrations in September declined by over 10 per cent to 960,000, even while electric scooter registrations marginally increased.
