Pressing The EV Accelerator

The government is making a fervent push for electric mobility and the two-wheeler industry is on its toes to meet the growing demand.

- Manu Balachandran & Harichandan Arakali

There is a massive churn underway in India’s automobile sector and it has nothing to do with the slowdown plaguing the economy. At the forefront of the transformation is a growing interest in the electric two-wheeler segment, which has the potential to shake up the pecking order of India’s two-wheeler industry. Consequently, market leaders, including Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycles and TVS, could lose their market shares to companies that were born in this century.

In August, Mahindra announced plans to foray into the segment while Pune-based Bajaj Auto is also working with strategic partner KTM to look at an electric solution for a high-end motorcycle. “We are watching this space. We have some plans up our sleeve. We will have a locally manufactured two-wheeler,” Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, told shareholders.

India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp, has already pumped $51 million (350 crore) into Bengaluruheadquartered Ather Energy in two separate rounds of funding as it looks to up its game in the electric two-wheeler segment. Currently, companies such as Hero Electric, BSA, Electrotherm (India) and Lohia have launched electric two-wheelers. So have startups like Okinawa, Ather Energy, Ampere, Twenty Two Motors and Revolt Motors, while Japanese motorbike manufacturers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki have confirmed plans to develop electric vehicles (EVs).

“Conventional companies that were opposed to the idea of EVs have now begun to factor in electric mobility in their short and long term plans,” says Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Electric, and director-general of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV). “Over the past two years, the government has been shouting from the rooftops about electric mobility. That has brought about a change in mindset, although a lot still needs to be done.”