“Our aggressive approach in the EV segment helped us create the right awareness and expand our customer base, making us the first auto manufacturer in India to cross the 50,000 EV sales milestone this year,”
- Shailesh Chandra
The EV industry reached its new high at the end of 2022 of one million sales which accounts for 4.7 per cent of the overall automobile services. This conveys the public interest in the purchase, regardless, the industry faces a major issue of high cost, a sense of long-term policy and the rising number of COVID cases.
The EV industry of India achieved one million sales in the year 2022. The government’s Vahan website which takes care of all vehicle registrations showed the registrations of about 1,003,000 EVs with the regional transport offices till the date December 31st, 2022. This had a shocking triple increase from the 2021 sale of only 332,000 units. The sales increased due to the high number of individuals buying and B2B ( Business-to-Business) purchases by EV fleet operators. The process of creating insights into EVs in the country was through the integration of FAME II and the establishment of charging infrastructure. Ola Electric, Asther Energy and Tata Motors are some of the manufacturers that profited from the greater adoption of EVs.
The last three months of the year were a boon to the industry due to the festive season demand and year-end discounts. Due to this, the E-vehicle registrations boomed in October and November having 115,000 and 119,000 respectively. Although the December registrations were a bit lacklustre with 102,000 registrations only.
Despite last month's mishap, TATA still shined and came out as the biggest player in the four-wheeler segment and, further, crossed the 50,000 EV milestone. TATA Motors has an 85 per cent market share in the passenger electric vehicle segment.
If 2023 follows 2022's trend, it will be crossing 100,000 EV sales every month.
According to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles(SMEV), the sector has seen a 30 per cent conversion from internal combustion engines to electric by 2025. However, there is reluctance on the part of the auto industry to invest more in EVs, due to lack of long-term policy along with a huge rising number of Covid cases that put the sector at high risk.
“A long-term policy with a greater focus on sourcing, a strong supply chain for crucial raw materials such as rare earth metals, and country-level arrangements are the need of the hour to avoid overreliance on midstream suppliers such as China. If all of these aren't in their place, the EV industry's growth plans could be affected badly,” said Manu Sharma, spokesperson, SMEV. Moreover, if the supply chain is disturbed due to Covid, there will be a shortage of semiconductors and raw material. Though the industry watches a higher demand in 2023, most players are in wait-and-watch mode due to Covid19. The industry has enough supply for the last quarter of Financial Year 2022, but after that there will be a crunch in raw material if there is any halt in January. The fresh Covid wave is now severe in China and most of the factories are working at 50 percent strength. However, for India it is a wait-and-watch moment, says Samrath Kochar, founder & CEO, Trontek. "There is no clarity in supplies beyond January and the orders for January either are in transit, dispatch or are lying at warehouses in China. We are keenly observing the developments in China," Kochar said. Manufacturing activity in China declined rapidly in December 2022, according to data released on Saturday by the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS). Moreover, The Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in December 2022 fell to 47, from to 48 the previous month. High cost and very few financing options are also a challenge for the industry. “Cost factor, and financial institutions' hesitance and reluctance to provide bank loans is a sour selling point for EVs,'' Aditya Reddy, VP, Sales & Marketing, EVenium Smart Mobility said. The government has now set an ambitious goal for EVs to make up 30 percent of private cars, 70 percent of commercial vehicles, and 80 percent of two- and three-wheelers by 2030.
DID YOU KNOW?
◦ China remains the market leader in EV sales followed by Europe and the USA.
◦ Toyota has only sold a total of 232 fully electric vehicles despite calling itself a “leader of electrification”.
◦ Maharashtra has the highest number of EV charging stations with 226 charging stations while Jammu and Kashmir have the least with 1 charging station.
BY -
SAKSHI CHAUHAN & GURMAN KAUR
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