Green energy: Mobility goes cheaper as EV sales in India over 1 mn this year
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: With the green energy market getting traction, the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) in India is set to cross the one million mark this year.
Major EV manufacturers like Tata Motors, Ather Energy, Old Electric, and some others are among the main gainers in this new market.
Recently, the Kinetic Group, which revolutionized personal mobility with their affordable iconic Luna moped four decades ago, also announced to launch E-Luna soon.
According to reports, the retail sales of EVs accounted for nearly 4.7 percent of the total automobile sales in the calendar year 2022. The increasing financing and leasing of EVs might further boost it in 2023.
Officials said EV registrations this month, until December 29, numbered 90,000 units in the country, as against 1,19,000 in November. Traditionally, December is a weaker month for automobile sales because consumers wait for the new year to buy a new vehicle.
This year, except in Telangana, around 9,89,000 EVs were registered with regional transport offices until Thursday, showing a threefold increase from 2021. The main drivers of this growth have been EV fleet operators and people purchasing two-wheelers. The sales declined sequentially in the two-wheeler EV segment from 76,000 units in November to 56,976 units so far in December.
New launches, increased availability of charging points, and low running costs are attracting both old and new consumers.
Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles & Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said his company’s aggressive approach in the EV segment helped it become the first Indian automobile manufacturer to cross the 50,000 EV sales milestone this year. In the electric passenger vehicle segment, Tata Motors holds an 85 percent share and it plans to launch 10 EVs in the next five years.
In December, the vehicle retail sales, including electric and fossil fuel-powered, totaled above 1.48 million units.
