Ola’s EV Marketshare Slips Further In Setptember, Bajaj, TVS, Gain

Ola’s EV Marketshare Slips Further In Setptember, Bajaj, TVS, Gain Ola S1 - Electric Two Wheelers

Ola Electric continues to cede marketshare to legacy stalwarts Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors in the two wheeler EV segment. Based on the figures for September, Ola’s market share shrank to just over 25%, a huge drop from the 47% share in September last year.

The losses have been mainly due to the continuous gains registered by Bajaj Auto, and TVS Motor Company, with the former overtaking the latter for the first time in sales volumes. IPO bound Ather Energy has also registered a strong uptick in sales, jumping over 60% YoY to 11000 units plus, in September this year. It had sold over 6500 units in September last year.

Bajaj numbers came in at just over 17,000 units, while TVS registered 16,000 units sold

Ola’s Slide, Ather’s Rise

For Ola, the continuous slide (it sold 21000+ units in September versus 30,000 last year) is an ominous indicator for future plans where it plans to expand production to a million EV’s per annum. Consistently poor communication and publicity around its sales and service, and performance of its scooters has been a drag on growth, with only ready availability, price and subsidies supporting sales for now.

Unlike Ola however, Ather has been riding precisely the quality of its product and service network to move up, even as it continues to expand distribution carefully. With offerings priced at a 50% premium to Ola in cases, Ather’s success puts the claim of a value conscious customer in perspective.
The value buyer is what seems to have helped Bajaj, with its Chetak range below Rs 1 lac finding buyers in smaller towns as well now, thanks to its extensive distribution network. As TVS races to follow suit with a sub one lac offering, it should also reap the benefits, indicating tougher times ahead for Ola. Of course, Ola has made the obligatory announcement of a larger service network and more trained personnel on the ground, but it will have to do a lot more to improve the wide perception gaining aground around its quality related issues.
As the festival season rolls around, the next two months will be a very strong indicator of the changing dynamics and upending of the leaderboard in the segment, especially the odds of Bajaj Auto actually toppling Ola at some stage. With a close to 20% market share, Bajaj is a lot closer than many considered possible even a year back.

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