Datanomics: India EV penetration subdued even as biggies enter market

According to the data from Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), the EV penetration in India was just 7.8 per cent in FY25, marginally up from 7.1 per cent in FY24

The electric vehicle ecosystem is set to get a boost in India with Tesla’s first store in the country opening its doors on Tuesday in Mumbai. Its rival, Vietnamese EV firm VinFast, has also started bookings for its VF6 and VF7 models. However, the  government’s target to raise EV sales to 30 per cent of vehicle sales, or attain 30 per cent EV penetration, by 2030, looks unachievable at the current pace of adoption. 

Report card

According to data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (Fada), the EV penetration in India was just 7.8 per cent in 2024-25 (FY25), marginally up from 7.1 per cent in FY24. Most of this was due to high EV penetration in the 3-wheeler segment, which was 57.3 per cent in FY25, higher than 54.2 per cent in FY24. In fact, India was the world’s largest market for electric 3-wheelers in 2023 and 2024, according to the Global EV Outlook 2025 released by the International Energy Agency. However, EV penetration for 4-wheeler passenger and commercial vehicles remained subdued. 

 

Lopsided distribution

There were a total of 26,367 public EV charging stations in India as of March, 2025. However, the distribution of these charging stations was heavily skewed. Only five states and Union Territories — Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu — comprised nearly 58 per cent of these public charging stations, with Karnataka alone accounting for 22.3 per cent of the total.