As per the association, this trend is mainly riding on the good traction witnessed by electric two-wheelers
Seeing a rising trend in the adoption of electric vehicles, the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) forecasts around 10 lakh units of total EVs to be sold in India this year. This is equal to what was sold in the country in the collectively last 15 years.
As per the association, this trend is mainly riding on the good traction witnessed by electric two-wheelers. In 2021, the sales of electric two-wheelers in the country jumped over two-fold at 2,33,971 units driven by a good traction of high-speed scooters as compared to 1,00,736 units in 2020.
“We haven’t seen better days than the last few months in the entire EV journey. In the last 15 years, we collectively sold around 1 million e2w, e-three wheelers, e-cars, and e-buses, and we will most likely sell the same 1 million units in just one year beginning January 2022,” SMEV Director General Sohinder Gill said.
The recent positive changes in EV policy through FAME II are a game-changer and a decisive move by the government to “ensure a cleaner and greener transportation sector, reducing reliance on expensive and dirty liquid fuel”, he added.
Going by the recent monthly trends, the next 12 months may see five to six times the growth over the previous 12 months, he added.
According to SMEV, the high-speed electric two-wheelers (E2Ws), which have speed greater than 25km/hour and require a full license, registered a whopping 425 per cent growth at 1,42,829 units in 2021, as compared to 27,206 units in 2020.
Sales of low-speed E2Ws with speed less than 25km/hour and no requirement for license and registration grew only by 24 per cent last year at 91,142 units, as compared to 73,529 units sold in 2020.
The low-speed E2Ws are not subsidised under the FAME 2 policy. The incentives on high-speed bikes based on their battery capacity of Rs 15,000/kwhr has made the entry-level high-speed eE2Ws cheaper than many of the low-speed ones, SMEV added.
“In four to five years, we can now confidently predict that around 30 per cent of the two-wheeler market will be electric,” Gill added.
