Electric scooter in India – Investigation and analysis

Demand for electric scooter in India grows

The demand for electric micro-mobility vehicles such as electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers is growing, especially due to the highly price sensitive Indian market.

The low cost of these vehicles compared to four-wheelers, coupled with their suitability for road traffic conditions in India, is expected to boost the adoption of two wheeler electric bike and three-wheelers. Some popular models include the Revolt RV 400 and the Tork Kratos.It is also driving demand for custom electric motorcycle and custom electric tricycle.

Impact of rising oil prices

Rising fossil fuel prices in India are driving demand for electric vehicles. The operating costs of electric vehicles are significantly lower than those of fossil fuel-powered vehicles, which has impacted consumer preferences for electric vehicles as a response to rising oil prices.

Battery costs continue to fall

The continued decline in the cost of lithium-ion batteries (down about 85% over the last decade) is positively impacting the electric vehicle market. Lower battery costs are an important driver for electric vehicle adoption, resulting in lower total operating costs (TCO) and high upfront costs for electric vehicles in India.

The use of electric scooter in India

The main purpose of biking in India is to commute to work (77.2%). Low-income groups ride mainly for commuting to work. The middle and high income groups are more for the purpose of sports, entertainment or fitness, and they will choose scooters or buses or cars to commute to work. According to a national travel distance survey, 80% of Indians walk within 8km of sunrise. This distance is suitable for short trips such as electric scooter.

Not only that, there are commercial applications, such as the food delivery industry and the express delivery industry, which are also the main uses of electric two-wheelers.

Cost advantage of electric scooter in India

As one of the world’s largest scooter markets, India has attracted the world’s famous scooter companies to invest in local factories, in scooter research and development, design, manufacturing to quality control, have spawned the development and growth of electric scooter in India industry.

At the same time, India has become a country with large-scale production facilities and a complete supply chain system, which has also laid a solid foundation for the development of electric scooter industry in India. India’s local mineral and rubber resources are rich, which also fundamentally compressed the cost of spare parts related to vehicle manufacturing, combined with India’s extremely low human resource costs.

It can be said that electric scooter in India has obvious cost advantages compared with China in almost every link, coupled with its excellent quality and performance, in recent years, it has a competitive advantage over Chinese scooters in Africa and other markets such as Indonesia motorcycle market.

in order to encourage the development of the electric scooter in India, the Indian government has also set up relevant subsidy policies, which not only further inspires the initiative of local enterprises to participate in the field, but also further allows Indian-made electric scooters to have more pricing flexibility.

It’s worth noting, though, that the electric scooter in India isn’t perfect. Many of its components, such as electric scooter batteries, are still relatively dependent on imports, which is also restricting India’s electric scooter to achieve large-scale production at this stage, and the main constraints of further price orders.

Best electric scooter in India

Electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) : Ola Electric, Hero Electric and Okinawa Autotech are the three best electric scooter manufacturers in the electric two-wheelers market in 2023, accounting for approximately 45% of the market share of registered vehicle category sales.

Electric tricycle (E3Ws) : Mahindra & Mahindra, YC Electric Vehicle and Saera Electric are the top three manufacturers in the electric tricycle market in 2023, with market shares of 8.95%, 7.34% and 5.46% respectively.

Tycorun as one of the top 10 electric tricycle manufacturers in China, offers a wide range of models, including two-wheelers and three-wheelers, There are also models for battery swapping station. Tycorun electric scooter has long endurance, durability, flexible braking and other characteristics, which meets the needs of most groups and is now gradually entering the Indian market.

Obstruction factors of electric scooter in India

The barriers to buying electric scooter in India are:

• High price
• Batteries are too expensive
• Battery replacement costs are high
• Unreliable quality
• Spare parts are difficult to replace
• Unsafe riding
• Lack of bike lanes
• Lack of government subsidies
• The electric scooter has a poor range
• Lack of charging facilities

Related data shows that the high price is the first factor, followed by doubts about the battery. Most batteries need to rely on imports, the battery cost accounts for 85% of the vehicle cost and the battery life is difficult to guarantee, coupled with the lack of maintenance industry chain, the battery replacement cost is high.

The electric scooter in India industry is growing rapidly and also benefits from policy support from the government. To promote the green energy transition, the Indian government has launched a program to “promote the adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles,” investing more than $1.2 billion to build charging stations across the country and providing subsidies to consumers who buy electric vehicles.

According to statistics, the charging cost of electric scooter is more than 30% higher than that of diesel cars, which has become one of the main reasons why many people are reluctant to buy electric vehicles in the absence of government subsidies. However, with the government vigorously promoting subsidy policies, the charging cost of electric vehicles can be reduced by about half.

Despite the government’s aggressive promotion of electric vehicles, the charging infrastructure is still quite inadequate due to India’s vast land area, which is a constraint. In addition, there are also doubts about the safety and battery performance of electric vehicles, and the relevant data and maintenance technology of electric vehicles are not perfect, which also affects the purchase willingness of consumers.

Despite the challenges, the elec scooter market in India is still full of growth opportunities. As the Indian government continues to promote the development of green energy and electric mobility, and manufacturers continue to improve products and services, electric scooter in India is expected to usher in a broader prospect.

Considering that charging stations will be subject to space constraints, India will develop a series of replacement policies and operating standards to further accelerate the electrification transition process. As we all know, compared with the traditional charging mode, the process of battery swapping is shorter than charging, can solve the core problem of long charging wait time, and can alleviate range anxiety to a certain extent. More comparison details can be found in the battery swapping vs charging station article.

The electrification transition in the Indian automotive market has suffered somewhat due to inadequate and expensive charging networks. The battery swap system may play a powerful role in promoting the electrification transformation.