Sharp rise in e-scooter registrations, penetration close to inflexion point

Ather Energy leads with a 4x increase in registrations in August; Hero Electric crosses the 10,000 mark once again, after a gap of over four months

Electric scooter registrations in August rose by a staggering 10 per cent over July, after falling or posting nominal growth numbers month-on-month since May this financial year.

The number of e-scooters registered went up from 33,099 in July to 36,463 till the evening of August 31, based on data released by VAHAN of eight companies. This does not include incumbent two-wheelers such as Bajaj and TVS.

The spurt in growth was led by Bengaluru-based Ather Energy, which saw a four-fold increase in registrations in August after the launch of its new models late in July. Hero Electric was able to cross the 10,000 vehicle mark once again in August, after a gap of over four months. It had hit over 13,000 vehicles in April, but after that chip shortages severely impacted sales.  

Ather was clearly the star of the show, as its registrations hit a record 5,104 in August, from a mere 1,289 in July. This is the highest monthly registration number that the company has reached since it entered the country. The firm launched the new Gen 3 450 X starting at a price of Rs 1.39 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) and also the Ather 450 Plus Gen 3 scooter at Rs 1.17 lakh.  

Says Ravneet S Phokela, chief business officer, Ather Energy: “Ather is on track to retail close to 6,000 units in August 2022, which marks our highest-ever monthly sales. The demand has always been strong, but we have been grappling with supply chain constraints. It is now that all the hard work on ramping up the supply chain is beginning to pay off, and we see growth in our production numbers.”

Phokela points out that that the growing momentum in production will ease the waiting period for deliveries, and coupled with distribution, footprint expansion would help them set up for the great festival season ahead. Giving Ather company is Hero Electric, whose registration numbers were up by 13 per cent in August.

The sharp increase in August registrations has come at a time when overall two-wheeler registrations have remained stagnant, falling very nominally by far less than a per cent. The combination, however, has helped electric scooters to shore up their share of the total two-wheelers (ICE and electric) in August to about 3.5 per cent, based on VAHAN data--pretty close to the best month this financial year, which was in April when it hit 3.58 per cent, with registrations of a record 43,348. After that the share fell to as low as 2.65 per cent in May, and inched back to 3.1 per cent in July.

However, analysts say that if electric scooter sales of Bajaj Auto and TVS, which are about 5,000 a month (if taken as registrations) are factored in, the share of e-scooters would touch 4 per cent. That is pretty close to what EV makers consider is the inflexion point after which the conversion from ICE to electric would be faster.

Greaves Mobility executive vice chairman, Nagesh Basavanhalli, has projected that the inflexion point for the e-scooter industry is expected to come by the end of FY23, when it hits 4-5 per cent of total two-wheeler sales (based on the base of FY22)--or simply when 700,000 scooters are sold.

But the downside is that the increase in registration is skewed only because of the encouraging performances of a few companies and is not secular. Registrations for five of the eight electric scooter players were down, with Ola Electric now falling to fifth place, replaced by Ather in the fourth spot with over 3.300 registrations, lower than what it was in July.

But on a positive note, with the launch of Ola’s new affordable model at Rs 99,000 on August 15. analysts say they are expecting a substantial surge in its numbers in September, which could help in increasing overall electric scooter penetration further.

Electric scooter makers, however, say the market has grown pretty sharply if looked from a yearly perspective. even though the incidents of some scooters catching fire and the shortage of semiconductor chips and cells of batteries have been a dampener.

However electric scooter sales have surged six-fold from a mere 40,000 in FY21 to 250,000 in FY22. And in FY23 they are expected to hit 700,000--a growth of 2.8x over the previous financial year. The reasonable expectation now among most e-scooter makers is that 30-35 per cent of the total market will shift to electric by 2027.

Brand/company	Registration for electric scooters in July	Registration for electric scooter in August
Ampere	6319	6229
Ather	1289	5104
Being	1167	1015
Hero Electric	8955	10119
Okinawa	8099	8171
Ola Electric	3862	3366
Pur	999	855
Revolt	2319	1604

Source: VAHAN