Sale of electric vehicle witnessed a drop

Sale of electric vehicle witnessed a drop in FY21 after a growth run of the last 5 years. Electric scooters are the biggest contributor to overall EV sales in India. The electric car category has recorded a decent upside, albeit on a low base.

Sale of electric vehicle across two, three and four-wheelers witnessed decline of 20% (down to 2,36,802 units) in fiscal 2020-21, as confirmed by Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicle (SMEV) on Thursday. The dip in sale has come after a growth run over the last 5 years, mainly driven by the demand for electric scooters. According to SMEV, total EV sales were at 1.29 lakh units in FY19; 56,000 units in FY18; 25,000 units in FY17 and 22,000 units in FY16 (all including electric two and four-wheeler sales).

6% YoY decline in FY21, the electric two-wheeler segment observed total sales of 1,43,837 units, including 40,836 high-speed and 1,03,000 low-speed vehicles, as against 1,52,000 units sold in FY20. With total sales of 4,588 units in the electric four-wheeler category, it recorded a YoY growth of 53% on a low base of 3,000 units sold in FY20. The YoY growth in electric cars can be attributed to the healthy numbers recorded by Tata Motors’ Nexon EV. The company, earlier this month, confirmed that it has sold more than 4,000 units of its Nexon EV since the model’s launch in January 2020. In March 2021 alone, the company sold 705 units of the Nexon EV, highest for any month since its launch.

Lockdown in 6 states to impact 31% of India’s car market in April.

With severe increase in COVID-19 cases across India and because of a wrecked medical infrastructure, Delhi is under a 6-day lock down. Five other states have partial lockdown, night curfew and restricted movements. All this together are likely to disrupt about one-third of India’s passenger car market in the month of April, as stated by automotive industry executives and dealer principals.As Delhi has gone into a 6-day lockdown from Monday 10pm, the restrictions across the national capital region along with 5 other states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (across 5 cities) and Chhattisgarh are together expected to disrupt almost one-third of the country’s passenger car market.

The lockdown restrictions are not only going to impact the production of vehicles and components across the manufacturing units located in the affected regions, the regulations will also impact the sales and distribution, retail movement and after-sales operations in many other states, said one of the senior executive.

One of senior director of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd confirmed that the current lockdown in 6 states will obviously affect the industry sales activities for almost 31%. If it continues it will damage market sentiments. This can have a disproportionate and adverse impact on sales, especially on retails.