New Delhi: Traditional two-wheeler makers such as Hero MotoCorp Ltd, TVS Motor Company Ltd and Bajaj Auto Ltd are looking to ramp up the supply of electric scooters in a bid to increase their share in overall sales, which has grown slowly over the past couple of years.
The three companies, accounting for more than half of the 1.3 million electric two-wheelers sold in the country in calendar 2025, are adopting distinct strategies, ranging from resolving production challenges to improving distribution of EVs at their outlets across India.
Electric two-wheeler adoption in India has struggled to accelerate, rising only from 6.1% of total two-wheeler sales in 2024 to 6.3% in 2025, despite offerings from most top manufacturers as well as new-age firms like Ather Energy and Ola Electric, according to data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). In 2025, a total of 20.3 million two-wheelers were sold in India.
In 2025, EV two-wheeler sales rose 11%, which was the slowest increase in electric category compared to EV passenger vehicles, three-wheelers and commercial vehicles. To be sure, electric two-wheeler sales in India remain overwhelmingly dominated by scooters, with electric motorcycles accounting for a very small fraction of the market due to limited model availability.
This comes at a time when the tax differential between electric two-wheelers and conventional internal combustion engine vehicles has narrowed, after GST on internal combustion engine vehicles with engine capacity below 350cc was cut from 28% to 18% in September. GST on electric vehicles remains at 5%.
According to the country’s largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, sales of electric scooters are currently constrained not by demand but by supply, due to production constraints at its plants.
“The company expects EV capacity issues to be resolved through ongoing debottlenecking and the addition of new capacity for upcoming models,” the company’s management said during Kotak Institutional Equities’ annual investor conference last week.
Production challenges were also flagged by the management of TVS Motor Company, which constrained supply of scooters in the market.
“On the EV side, we had a setup setback because of the magnet availability. We tried our level best. Now it is recovering. I can tell you that it is recovering. And hopefully, by another month, you will see full supplies of EV also into the market,” K.N. Radhakrishnan, director and chief executive at TVS, said during a 28 January earnings call.
Indian automakers have faced constraints in EV production due to restrictions on the supply of rare earth magnets, following export controls imposed by China in April 2025.
While Hero and TVS are working on boosting production to increase supply of electric two-wheelers, Bajaj Auto is attempting to improve its distribution strategy to have more EVs in the market.
“To scale up market penetration, the company shifted its distribution model from exclusive EV outlets to utilizing its much larger, pan-India motorcycle dealership network,” Bajaj’s management said during Kotak Institutional Equities’ annual investor conference last week.
Similar to Bajaj’s strategy, Ather has also worked on expanding its distribution network, doubling its 350 stores at the end of 31 March 2025, to 700 stores by the end of this month. In 2025, Ather saw its sales jump 59% to 200,797 units.
To be sure, Hero, Bajaj and TVS all recorded strong growth in their EV sales in 2025. While EV two-wheeler market leader TVS saw a 35% growth to 298,881 units, second-place Bajaj Auto's sales increased 39% to 269,847 units. Hero MotoCorp saw its EV two-wheeler sales more than double to 109,168 units. Hero is also the largest shareholder of Ather Energy, with a minority stake of 30%, but sells its EV scooters under a different brand, Vida.
Hero and Ather together sold 309,965 scooters in 2025, controlling about one fifth of the market.
However, these gains appear to have come at the cost of Ola Electric, whose sales crashed from 407,700 units in 2024 to 199,318 units in 2025. Meanwhile, traditional two-wheeler manufacturers such as Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor Company and Bajaj Auto are now focusing on scaling up electric vehicle penetration in the two-wheeler market to expand their share of EV sales.
Mint's emails to Bajaj Auto, Ola Electric, Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor, and Ather Energy for additional comments remained unanswered.
Experts suggest that EV two-wheeler sales have grown at a decent pace, with a healthy mix of supply and demand, but are being held back due to the nature of the Indian two-wheeler market.
According to Deepesh Rathore, founder of electric two-wheeler market consultancy InsightEV, analysis of electric two-wheeler sales trends suggests that while supply is adequate, market growth is being constrained by limited adoption and participation in electric motorcycles.
“Given that around two-thirds of sales come from motorcycles in the two-wheeler market, the absence of major two-wheeler makers in electric motorcycles has constrained the penetration of EV two-wheelers. Supply of electric scooters has remained healthy in the market. But we expect that penetration of electric two-wheelers will only shoot up once there are enough electric motorcycles in the market,” Rathore said.
Hero, TVS and Bajaj Auto are working on getting the electric motorcycle technology right, with Hero and TVS already having access to the technology. However, currently, only Ola Electric has an electric motorcycle offering among the top five EV two-wheeler makers in the market, with its electric motorcycle model Roadster.