Ola Electric stormed past the 40% market share milestone in electric two-wheeler sales in December, driven by deep discounts and an extensive offering of aggressively priced e-scooters at multiple price points. The company offered discounts nearing 18% or ₹20,000 on the S1 X+ electric scooter, its cheapest offering in the market, as it moved to grab a larger share of the e-two-wheeler market ahead of a potential public listing early this year.
While there were negligible discounts on the TVS iQube and Bajaj Chetak after the festive season, Hero’s Vida V1 and Ather’s 450 range of scooters had cash discounts of just ₹6,500, according to a report by Motilal Oswal. Ola was followed in the market share pecking order by TVS Motor (16.2%) and Bajaj Auto (13.7%). No other company touched double-digit market share in December.
Ola is planning to continue the discount on the S1 X+ in January, a person aware of the matter said on condition of anonymity. It will also launch promotional offers each month, such as exchange bonuses, even though they may not be cash discounts.
This is the first month in nearly three years that any company has crossed 40% market share in this segment. Ola’s share was up from 32.6% in November, and ahead of its previous best market share of 38.4% in June, a Mint analysis of data from the Centre’s Vahan database showed.
Ola Electric’s entry into the electric two-wheeler market in late 2021 came when the segment was highly fragmented, with multiple players contending for volumes and the market for low-speed scooters flourishing, too. Its entry had split the market share of the leaders at that time, and between then and April 2023, no company had crossed the 30% market share in any month.
Ola’s rivals have their work cut out for them. As network and distribution expansion with one or two products gives way to Ola Electric’s wider range of products at attractive prices, expanding market share for its rivals will be a difficult task without more models that address newer markets and segments.
Bajaj Auto could be benefiting from market share expansion and greater product availability now, but analysts Mint spoke to warn that TVS Motor’s single-product offering (iQube) may be causing fatigue, and incremental sales from more showrooms will remain limited, given it already covers major markets for the segment. TVS is also partially supply chain constrained, with maximum volumes at its current production facility limited to about 25,000 units per month.
The other prominent company, Ather Energy, was the fourth biggest seller in December with an 8.6% market share.
“For Ather, too, there is an urgent need to expand its product range and address more segments, work that’s already in the works,” an analyst told Mint on condition of anonymity.
In a statement, Anshul Khandelwal, chief marketing officer, Ola Electric Technologies Pvt. Ltd, said, “We believe that we have continued our market leadership for yet another quarter on the back of our strong product lineup comprising S1 Pro, S1 Air, and the S1 X+. Our ‘December to Remember’ campaign has been a massive success, bringing thousands more under the EV fold.”
Ola Electric recently expanded its scooter portfolio to five products. Priced at ₹1,47,499, the S1 Pro (second generation) is the company’s flagship premium EV scooter while the S1 Air is available at ₹1,19,999. It has additionally introduced the S1X in three variants—S1 X+, S1 X (3kWh), and S1 X (2kWh). Meanwhile, a total of 75,366 electric two-wheelers were sold last month, up 16.6% year-on-year, but it was also the first sequential decline in six months after a festive push led to 91,734 sales in November. The record for last year was in May 2023, when 105,565 electric two-wheelers were sold.
In all of 2023, nearly 860,000 electric two-wheelers were sold, up 36% since 2022. The year ended with a 31.1% share for Ola Electric, 19.4% for TVS Motor and 12.2% for Ather Energy.