India’s Electric Motorcycle Market in YTD June 2021: New Registrations Reached 32,000 Units

In India, the world’s largest motorcycle market, sales of electric motorcycles are gradually expanding. The number of newly registered electric motorcycles that require vehicle registration reached a record high of about 32,000 units in the first six months of 2021. The ratio of electric motorcycles to the total number of newly registered motorcycles during the same period was a mere 0.6%. However, due to the increase in purchase subsidies offered the Indian government and the growing number of new players in the sector, interest in the electric motorcycle market is increasing.

The Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), a local industry group, has announced that the number of electric motorcycles sold in FY 2020-21 (ending March 2021) was 144,000 units. However, this number includes many low-speed electric scooters (maximum speed 25 km/h or less) that do not meet motorcycle standards and do not require registration. It should be noted that the SMEV’s announcement for FY 2020-21 shows that low-speed type accounted for 103,000 units and high-speed type for 41,000 units.

In this report, in order to understand the market size of electric motorcycles that compete with conventional motorcycles and require vehicle registration, the new automobile registration database VAHAN managed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) of India was used for calculation. Based on this data, the number of newly registered electric motorcycles for the full year of 2020 decreased 1.7% from the previous year to 27,000 units. Compared to the entire motorcycle market, which fell about 23% due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, it can be said that the electric motorcycle market remained firm. In the first half of 2021, sales skyrocketed 3.2 times year-on-year to 32,000 units, partly due to impact of the pandemic on sales in the first six months of 2020.

The Indian government decided to increase the purchase subsidy in June 2021 for the purpose of promoting sales of electric motorcycles. The purchase subsidy, which used to be 10,000 INR per 1kWh of installed battery capacity, has been raised to 15,000 INR.