Auto Sales August 2024 - Legacy Two-Wheeler Brands Gain EV Market Share

The sales report for August, 2024 has revealed a very interesting trend. Traditional ICE two-wheeler manufacturers are making a strong statement in the EV space. EV Startups had a headstart in the segment as many brands entered the fray when the EV market was just upcoming and were boosted further by government subsidy schemes. Brands such as Ather Energy and Ola Electric were hugely popular and held the majority of the market share. Legacy brands such as Hero MotoCorp, TVS and Bajaj Auto took their time before rolling out their electric scooters and also expanding their dealership presence.

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The above meant that EV startups held the majority of the market share, but one could see the grip of these manufacturers weakening especially since the beginning of 2024. The trio of Hero, TVS and Bajaj increased their combined market share to 43% in August, 2024, a healthy rise of 4% month-on-month. While the EV stalwarts, Ola and Ather Energy saw their combined market share drop from 47.9% to 43% in August, 2024. The steep drop can be attributed to Ola Electric as the company lost a massive 8% market share from 39% in July, 2024. In fact, at one point, Ola had over 50% market share as sales for the S1 series skyrocketed. The biggest gainer among the legacy ICE brands is Bajaj Auto with its Chetak electric scooter range as it registered 18% market share. The sales success of the Chetak can be credited to the introduction of cheaper variants and Bajaj expanding the retail presence of its electric scooter massively. 

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While ICE brands have expanded their market share, EV sales in general witnessed a drop as sales slid from 1.07 lakh units to a shade above 88,000 units in August, 2024. The drop in sales can be attributed to buyers being apprehensive owing to the many policy changes regarding subsidies. With FAME-II (Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) subsidy ending, the government introduced the Electric Mobility Promotion Scheme 2024 (EMPS 2024), a budget-limited scheme that has a financial outlay of ₹500 crore. The EMPS 2024 scheme gave buyers a subsidy relief of just ₹5,000, which is very less in comparison to the around ₹45,000 offered when FAME-II was introduced. 

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The impact of subsidy can be witnessed from the fact that EV two-wheeler sales had peaked in March, 2024 when it reached almost 1.40 lakh units. With FAME-III details still unclear it seems likely that the government will extend the EMPS 2024 scheme further and an announcement can be expected at the 2024 SIAM summit scheduled next week in New Delhi. Competition in the electric two-wheeler space will gather momentum further as Hero, TVS and Bajaj have already announced plans of lowering the cost of their scooters by introducing new variants and platforms in the near future. Can the EV startups regain their lost momentum? Only time will answer and it wouldn’t be an easy battle for sure.