Background
India is the largest two wheeler market in the world with a sale of 21.19 million units in 2019. It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.33% to 24.89 million units by 20241.
E-Scooters/Bikes in India
The adoption rate of electric vehicles in India is still very low compared to the petrol engine vehicles due to the various factors like high cost, less charging stations, inadequate infrastructure, etc. However, the Indian customers are showing huge demand for e-scooters and motorcycles due to the rise of fuel prices. In view of its growth, some automobile industrialist believe that around 40% of sale of petrol engine scooter could get converted into e-scooter by 2025, Some are projecting 30 million units by 20302. Furthermore, the Indian government is pushing to increase the production and adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) by providing incentives and subsidies to EV companies and customers3.
Market Competition and Strategies
With the growing demand of e-scooters/bikes in India, many automobile giants and start-ups are joining the race to be a part of growing EV market by launching a series of e-scooters and e-bikes models to attract the customers. As of 2021, there were more than 20 EV manufacturing companies offering nearly 200 electric two wheeler in the market.4 Companies are adopting various market development and product development strategies to attract the customers across the country. Some of them are:
| Company | Strategies |
| Hero5 | Training of roadside mechanics across the country to deal with EVs for boosting the customers’ buying confidence.Installation of 20,000 charging stations across the country (by 2023) to ease the issue of range.Expanding production capacity from 75,000 to 300,000 units.Started tying with food delivery companies, e-commerce companies and other such companies to scale up the market share.Launching of new models |
| Bajaj6 | Re-launched its iconic scooter model – Chetak, in all new electric avatar in two variant – Chetak premium and Chetak Urbane.Adopted digital retailing format, online platform for booking.Prior to booking, customers can get a test drive in selected areas.Launched Chetak Mobile App to give the rider a comprehensive overview like ride history, etc. |
| Ola7 | To be competitive, it setup world’s largest EV manufacturing facility with an annual capacity of 10 million vehicles.Released teasers of e-scooter well before the launch of the product to generate craze among customers.Bhavish Agarwal, CEO, himself becomes a brand ambassador in promoting its range of e-scooters.Opened online booking at just Rs.499 (refundable) that resulted in receiving more than 100,000 bookings within 24 hours.Installing multilayer Ola Hyper charging station network that has more than 1 lakh charging points across the 400 cities in India. The charging stations have the capacity to charge many scooters simultaneously.Focus on a single scooter model with a choice of 10 different colours.Planning to deliver the scooter at the customer’s door step. |
Conclusion
The Indian two wheeler EV market is going to take a major part of market share ratio with petrol engine vehicles. The start-ups and automobile companies are racing to launching their products to enjoy the growing potential of EV market.
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Discussion Questions
- Start-ups are very aggressively pursuing the launch of electric two wheeler in India. Do you think they can compete with the established brands who would also be in the fray in a big way soon?
- How can electric two wheeler start-ups win the customers’ trust towards their brands?
Source Articles
- Bureau, ET. Global two-wheeler market to grow to 62.6 million by 2025: Report. Economic Times. 03 April 2021.
- Media. Hero Electric: ‘Expect 12-30 million electric 2-wheelers in India by 2030’. Hero Electric. 08 June 2021.
- Mayank Dhingra. Ather expects 40 percent of scooter market to be electric by 2025. Autocar. 10 July 2021
- Media. Electric Bikes and Scooters. bikedekho.com. 2021.
- Bureau, ET. Hero Electric aims to train 20,000 roadside mechanics to deal with EVs. Economic Times. 04 April 2021.
- Bureau, ET. Bajaj Chetak electric scooter deliveries to begin in September. Economic Times. 30 June 2021.
- Prashant Singh. Ola Electric scooter customers to get ‘Hypercharger’ support in 400 cities. Economic Times. 24 July 2021.
