The Future Is Electric

The pandemic has not impacted the electric vehicle story adversely. In fact, it may have accelerated the shift

- Sumant Banerji

The pandemic may have come as a rude shock for doubting Thomases who believed that the future of mobility is something else. While sale of conventional passenger vehicles and two-wheelers in the country declined over 9 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively, in fy21, electric two and four-wheelers bucked the trend and posted impressive growth.

Sales of electric two-wheelers surged over 64 per cent, while four-wheelers grew over 68 per cent. Yes, this is on a small base, but encouraging. In a year where nearly two months were lost due to lockdown, it is the clearest indication yet that after sputtering for years, the electric mobility story is on track towards an inflection point when it will become mainstream.

$206 BILLION

The market opportunity for EVs in India by FY2030. Cumulative sales may top 100 million by then

“Covid did us a favour as sustainability and people’s preference for greener vehicles increased, as did the slant towards private mobility. We believe the industry is just getting started and there are exciting times ahead of us,” says Nagesh Basavanahalli, Group CEO and Managing Director, Greaves Cotton, which acquired an electric two-wheeler company Ampere Vehicles in 2018. “We are beginning to see traction. We surpassed the full-year performance of FY2020 in just nine months of FY2021 despite Covid.”