Electric scooters sales up in India

In India, two-wheeler sales haven’t been going too well on the other hand, electric scooters sales up in India. The slow down in global economy has affected many industries and Indian auto market is not exception for this, but electric vehicle sales is not affected and electric scooters sales up in India. Instead of buying cars, people showing their interest to purchase scooters (both those that run on petrol and those that are electric).

Indian government also gave some help to rise electric two-wheeler market and several Indian states have waived sales and other taxes on these electric scooters, that have definitely helped to go up electric scooter sales. However, the low maintenance cost and low running cost makes electric scooters highly desirable even without those tax benefits.

In India electric scooters sales rose by 42.25% from past six months, according to a survey conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Last year, total number of electric scooters are around 100,000, or we can say one-tenth of the total scooters sold. However, that was just a drop in the bucket - being only about 1% of total two-wheeler sales, including bikes, sold in the country.

Electric scooter manufacturer Hero Electric, a division of Hero Cycles Ltd, expected they will sold as many as 30,000 units of electric scooters this financial year, as compared to 21,000 units of last year. India's leading electric two-wheeler manufacturers are Hero Electric, Ultra Motor India Pvt. Ltd and Electrotherm India Ltd. However, they have around 65 smaller competitors, who import electric scooters or kits that need assembly from China.

The other main reason for the popularity of these electric scooters between teenagers are that scooters with a top speed of 25kmph doesn't need to be registered by the road or transport authorities. Housewives and senior citizens account for a majority of the sales, dealers say.