October Saw an 85% Increase in Sales of Electric 2W to 139,000 Units, With TVS Overtaking Bajaj and Ola Regaining

Nitin Konde, Varun Bhardwaj

Nov 5, 2024 — 3 min read

Electric 2W Sales Surge 85% in October TVS Overtakes Bajaj

E-two-wheeler retail sales reached their second-best monthly performance, only missing March's 140,333 units, thanks to festive season demand and alluring OEM discounts. While Ola has recovered to levels above 41,000, TVS and Bajaj are still engaged in a fierce war.

This segment all set to reach a million sales for the first time in a calendar year in November, as the top six OEMs each surpass their CY2023 retails in the first 10 months of 2024.

What Spiked the Sales of EV 2Wheeler?

In spite of the reduced subsidy, the buyer-friendly festive season schemes, attractive deals offered by e-two-wheeler OEMs, and the availability of customised financing, retail sales were the second-highest in this calendar year to date, following the FAME II subsidy-ending month of March 2024 (140,333 units). The new PM E-Drive Scheme went into effect on October 1. The PM E-Drive Scheme aims to assist 24.79 lakh e-two-wheelers, 316,000 e-three-wheelers, and 14,028 electric buses with an expenditure of INR 10,900 crore over two years and subsidy/demand incentives of INR 3,679 crore. The PM E-Drive Scheme, which runs from October 1, 2024, to March 31, 2026, does not apply to passenger cars.

The largest volume driver of the Indian EV market is the electric two-wheeler market. According to the most recent data accessible on the Vahan websites of the Indian government, it made up 64% of India EV Inc.'s total volumes of 217,621 units in October.

Ola Electric Back in Form

Ola Electric will be relieved that it sold 41,605 units in October 2024, following two turbulent months of low sales of fewer than 28,000 units (August: 27,615 and September: 24,716), which caused the company's market share to drop to less than 30%. This represents a 74% YoY gain and a 68% month-over-month increase. Additionally, the company has sold an additional 96,885 units through the end of October, surpassing its total CY2024 retail sales of 267,376 units.

Ola experienced a strong month-over-month growth from April through July until the steep decline in August and September. The company had started CY2024 with 32,424 units (up 77%) in January and reached a peak of 53,640 units (up 150%) in March. Numerous complaints from customers regarding poor service were blamed for Ola's August and September sales drop. However, sales have increased in October after the recently listed business promised that it has satisfactorily resolved 99.1% of consumer concerns through its redressal procedure.

TVS Regaining its Spot by Taking Over Bajaj

In October, TVS Motor Co. reclaimed the second position on the e-two-wheeler podium after being hurt by Bajaj Auto's September takeover. The iQube producer saw a robust 81% YoY rise with retail sales of 29,890 units (October 2023: 16,507 units), and last month's market share was 21%. TVS's market share for the first ten months of this year is 18.41%.

The effort paid off, as TVS Motor's October retails are its greatest monthly numbers to date. Like Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor sent the most iQubes to its dealers in October, totalling 28,564 units.

These two legacy OEMs are still engaged in a fierce struggle; in CY2023, TVS sold 166,581 iQubes, which was 94,641 more than Bajaj Auto's 71,940 Chetaks. In the current calendar year, such an enormous disparity has significantly decreased to 27,164 units.

Three battery options are available for the TVS iQube: 2.2 kWh, 3.4 kWh, and 5.1 kWh. The business reports that the market is responding favourably to the complete portfolio. With a 2.2kWh battery, the standard model can travel 75km in real life and takes two hours to fully charge using a 950W charger. At INR 94,999, this base version of iQube is now the most economical. This model comes with a 5-inch TFT display, turn-by-turn navigation, and theft and tow alarms, along with the 3.4 kWh iQube.