Why do you need an electric scooter now?

 

India's electric two-wheeler market hasn't yet grown up yet. But it's probably the best thing you can do to fight rising gas prices.

 

There has been a big rise in the price of petrol, which has again put electric scooters in the spotlight. This is a mode of transportation that is becoming more and more popular every day.

The government has made some changes to its FAME Phase-2 programme. E-scooters now get a grant of Rs 15,000 per kwh. In order to get the subsidy, scooters must be able to go at least 80 km/h and reach a top speed of 40 km/h.

According to a report from the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, 2019-'20 was the best year for sales of electric two-wheelers, with 1,52,000 sold. The next year, sales will be down 6% because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to NITI Aayog, electric two-wheelers are expected to make up 80% of India's two-wheeler market by 2030. Amitabh Kant, the head of the NITI Aayog, says that the country is ready for electric two and three-wheelers to be 100% electric.

It doesn't matter that India only buys about 2 million two-wheelers a year. Electric scooters make up only a small percentage of that. There is no doubt that India's EV market will grow from the bottom up.

Tarun Mehta, the co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy Pvt Ltd, thinks the same thing, too. If you were to buy an ICE (internal combustion engine) scooter with the same power as ours, it usually takes 10 months to break even in terms of total cost of ownership. For years, it took years for the math to make sense. Now, that number takes 18 months.

There have been a lot of great things about India's electric car success storey because Ather has risen so quickly. As with any new business, it didn't work out right away. In fact, it wasn't until 2021 that the brand was able to have what Mehta calls "good economics."

"Ather used to make us lose money with every product they sold." Everything had to be made from scratch, and there were only a few of them, Mehta said.

Today, Ather Energy can be seen in more than 10 major cities, and its new e-scooter, the Ather 450X, is the star of a new class of sleek, high-tech e-scooters that have a key aspirational quality.

This is what Mehta says: "The first generation of scooters took three to four times longer to build than the second generation." Because the supply chain wasn't set up the way it is now. This is why.

The last three years have seen a number of e-scooter manufacturer become big players in the electric vehicle market. Okinawa Scooters, which was founded in 2015, now has a 36% share of the high-speed electric scooter market, says founder and MD Jeetender Sharma.

If you look at Okinawa's sales in the last three months, they have gone up 30%. Sharma: "Next year, we want to grow three times as fast as we did last year." His math, after the recent rise in gas prices, makes a strong case for electric scooters.

 

At the moment, the cost of running an internal combustion scooter is about Rs2/km. Electric scooters cost about 15-20 paisa per km. As soon as BS-VI regulations came into effect, the cost of owning two-wheelers already went up. Battery charges around the world have gone down. It costs about the same as a 110cc scooter, because our cost is about 80k, and theirs is about 85k. For battery operated two-wheeler, there is no fee to register them as well.

 

What really is the issue?

battery operated two-wheeler offer a huge advantage over gas scooters. But why can't they dominate the Indian two-wheeler market?

We can't get there right now because we need general knowledge. Early adopters, early majority, and late majority, argues Tarun Mehta. "We're just selling to early adopters now. Electric automobiles are all the rage now."

Unlike electric cars, battery operated scooter require less infrastructure. Range worry is eliminated by scooters' low range and quick recharge periods.

Local infrastructure issues have kept EV scooters from taking off, according to Mehta. Last year's Ather 450X designers said charging at home is difficult. It takes 4.5 hours to fully charge.

"We have to figure out how folks can have access to a simple 3-pin, 5-amp socket," he explains. "You can buy a three-pin socket and access energy from your apartment or meter, but it involves extra work." Mehta believes that the government must impose some sort of rule. It would be excellent if the Ministry of Urban Affairs mandated or encouraged people to drive electric. Many folks who want to switch will not without it.

Okinawa employed detachable batteries to solve the issue. The batteries can be charged at home. So, they can return the batteries. Many Best electric scooter manufacturers, including Ather, are unsure about this.

I believe the EV market is growing enough that people will want to charge their cars at home. The answer should come from the Central Government.

"In 3-4 years, we will be able to create our own cells." There appear to be several major commercial opportunities. So says Mehta. "According to a recent assessment, India may be the world's finest cell manufacturer for some types of lithium-ion chemistry used in cars."

We already have some of the raw components needed to manufacture cells here at home. In lithium-ion batteries, lithium isn't the most significant component. We can also ask countries like Australia for assistance. We don't need to go to China for lithium, but we can. But China doesn't need lithium. He claims China visits Bolivia.

Blog Source: - Money Control dot com