We are fairly in 2023 now. There was a question I posed in early 2022 “2022 – The EV Year?”, Let me try to pragmatically answer this question over this blog post.
First lets just rewind on how the 2022 year passed by:
- Russia – Ukraine war – this escalated the energy prices and left the fuel prices soaring high. This also derailed the global supplies for major raw materials etc.
- Micro Chip shortage – as Ukraine is a major supplier for rare metals e.g. palladium & neon gas, etc. this disrupted the supply chain for chips. This added to the woes of Auto Manufacturers.
- Zero Covid Policy of China – this kept on creating a lot of supply chain issues and hiccups in the overall global scenario. Battery materials supplies hampered for major part of H1.
These points were revisited to highlight one fact that over all the first 3~4 months of 2022 were lost in getting these basics right and yet the EV industry leaped through one of the best years in its history in India.
2-WHEELER:
EV companies made their highest Monthly sales in OCT 22.
Currently it is hovering around 5~6 % of the total sales but is surely catching up. Also, currently there are no major Bike offering in EV. I wont be surprised if this number goes to 10~15% by H2 2023.
Also, the bigger players also have lately entered the space aggressively. Hero launching VIDA – A new brand for EV Scooters. Along the way while the parts supplies get rationalized the sales will pick up.
Bajaj will be investing INR. 750 Cr in FY 2023 for manufacturing EV’s and Premium bikes. This is the highest investment in single fiscal ever by Bajaj.
In the recent Auto Expo – 2023 there were a lot of companies that launched 2 & 3 wheeler in EV.
3-WHEELER:
According to the VAHAN Dashboard (Govt website for Vehicle data) in Passenger segment EV penetration has been above 60% for last 6 months, in Cargo segment it has been above 35% for last 6 months. This puts EV in a very strong presence of around 55~58% of the overall 3-Wheeler sales.
Tube Investment launched a new EV Brand – MONTRA for their 3-Wheeler, TVS and Piaggio already have a offering. Mahindra Treo would sell approx. 80~100K EV 3-wheeler in 2022.
PASSENGER CAR:
TATA MOTORS: They are leading the EV Pass car market with a boom
In 2021 they just had one product in EV the Nexon and now they have Nexon, Tigor, Taigo and plan to launch Punch, Altroz and Harrier as well in the coming Days. They launched Nexon EV Max with 430 kms range and 0-80% battery charging in less than 60 minutes.
They want 50% of their car sales to be from EV by 2030.
Amidst the resistance to acceptance due to range anxiety, charging infra issues, cost of cars etc. the competition seems heating up as for the first time we see price reduction announcement. Also the welcome part is Passenger Car range now starts with 8.50 Lakhs (introductory price) Tiago EV.
Mahindra XUV 400 Vs Nexon EV Max
Refer below the advertisement from Tata – the novelty sales strategy is now changing to value proposition sells has also picked up.
Morris Garages: (MG)
MG has inched this game a bit higher with slue of launches in AUTO EXPO – 23. All the vehicles they launched are production models and they just need to develop the components in India to be production ready.
They also announced an EV SUV around 15 Lakh price tag – this seems to me a very aggressive strategy.
Mahindra:
Mahindra’s also want to have the share of the PIE.
Refer the below Advertise from them teasing the already established – NEXON EV.
EV Components:
Quite a few companies are trying to explore India as a hub for EV components manufacturing as well. Renault, Toyota, etc. have already announced the plan for the same.
The Auto Expo 23 was filled with almost every booth with one or the other EV component.
CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE:
India currently has around 2500 charging station, highest @ 550 ~600 in Maharashtra and least in Tripura.
There are more than approx. 30 + charging infra players, who claim to have installed more than 50 charging stations in India. So the charging stations are increasing strongly along the length and width of India.
With this we could say 2022 has seen a good traction in Electrification. It could have been way better had there not been any external events which had momentarily derailed the EV Train. Coming months and actions from the segments leaders in this space will be interesting to watch.
So to wrap up this update, over all even though the speed of in EV adoption might not be visible to the general eye, it seems that a lot of water is flowing below the bridge. Its like the growth curve which is straight line until it goes parabolic.
Do share your views in comments below and Stay tuned to this blog for more such updates.
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