The beleaguered Okinawa Autotech and Ola Electric, whose EV scooters were caught in unfortunate fire incidents, topped the electric two-wheeler sales in India in the month of May, with Okinawa beating Ola to the top spot by a whisker.
But the real story of last month's EV two-wheeler sales is that both Okinawa and Ola saw their month-on-month sales dropping. In fact, the entire industry seems to be reeling under the impact of the explosions, which the DRDO report puts it down to faulty battery packs in the vehicles.
As per the data on VAHAN, Okinawa sold 9,302 electric scooters while Ola Electric is said to have registered 9,225 units of its S1 Pro electric scooter. The real detail is in the fact Okinawa's sales dropped by 15.5% and Ola Electric's fell by 27.3% month-on-month.
But Ather shows the way
Ather Energy, Bajaj Auto and Revolt Motors showed an increase in their sales number last month, while registrations for all other brands dipped. Ather Energy's 450 Plus and 450 X vehicles registered their best monthly sales performance yet, reporting sales of 3,787 scooters, with 3,322 of them being registered in May. Ather also had a strong April in terms of sales and registrations.
Overall, the total registrations of electric two-wheelers from the top 10 players slipped to 36,535 units in May from 45,084 units in April --- a near 20% fall. Greaves Electric Mobility's Ampere Vehicles were in the third slot with 5,836 scooters registered (down from 6,539 units in April).
Hero Electric, the former country-topper, is languishing in the fifth place, with just 2,850 of its e-scooters being registered last month. Hero Electric had nil dispatches in April due to chip shortage, and that left dealers with almost no scooters in stock for the month of May.
Bajaj delivered 1,715 units of the Chetak electric scooter, while Revolt shipped 1,584 units of its RV400 electric motorcycle. Pure EV and Benling India's EVs fell to 1,466 units and 792 units, respectively.
TVS had 442 registrations of its iQube electric scooter, as the company focused on the new iQube, which it unveiled only recently. TVS, however, said it had dispatched 2,637 units of the iQube e-scooters to dealers in May.
EV industry needs to set its house in order
The industry needs to come together and collectively address the fears over fire safety, which is under focus thanks to the multiple fire accidents across the country. The DRDO's Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) lab recently submitted a report that found serious defects in the design of the battery packs and modules of the electric scooters at the centre of the recent fire incidents. Now, it is expected that government will announce new norms on battery packs and testing standards in EVs.
The new guidelines for battery packs and testing standards in EVs may be incorporated within the Niti Aayog's battery policy as and when it is formulated and released for implementation by the industry.
