Ola Electric’s sales plunge in a shrunk market. But its data says otherwise.

New Delhi: Ola Electric Technologies Ltd’s monthly registrations fell to a near three-year low in February while its legacy rivals raced to grab a larger share of India’s shrunk electric two-wheeler market. Ola Electric, however, insisted it remained the market leader ahead of Bajaj Auto Ltd and TVS Motor Co. Ltd.

Per the Union road transport and highways ministry’s centralised vehicle registry database, Vahan, electric two-wheeler sales in India fell by about 27% from January to 71,847 units in February, the lowest since April 2024’s 65,554 registrations.

Some industry analysts dismissed the lower electric two-wheeler sales in February as a one-off, optimistic that adoption was likely to be faster in the coming months.

In February, Bajaj Auto sold a little over 20,000 electric two-wheelers—including the electric scooter version of the iconic Chetak—accounting for 27.8% of India’s electric two-wheeler market in February.

TVS Motor sold 17,605 electric bikes and scooters, claiming a 24.5% market share in February, followed by Ola Electric’s closest new-age rival Ather Energy that registered 11,130 vehicles, accounting for a 15.5% market share.

Ola Electric’s 8,390 registrations in February, down from 24,376 units in January, made for its lowest monthly count since August 2022, when the company recorded 3,476 registrations, as per Vahan.

Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor and Ather, too, recorded lower registrations in February than in the month before.

Preetesh Singh, specialist–CASE and alternate powertrains, at Nomura Research Institute, said there were no specific reasons for the drop in overall electric two-wheeler registrations in February. (CASE is the auto industry’s abbreviation for connected, autonomous, shared & services, and electrification.)

“Maybe some pre-booking might have happened before the Budget (which was presented on 1 February). With significant incentives for consumers like the tax reliefs and the sentiment being positive for the EV ecosystem, the numbers should pick up in the upcoming months,” he said.

Also read | Policy tweaks drag sale of subsidized electric two-wheelers to three-year low

Ola’s registration woes

Ola Electric touted its own data in a statement on Friday, claiming it sold more than 25,000 electric two-wheelers in February, which would give it a 28% market share.

The Bhavish Aggarwal-led company, in a stock exchange filing on 19 February, had forewarned the lower official February sales data, saying it would be affected as the company was renegotiating contracts with its agencies responsible for vehicle registration.

“We are renegotiating the terms of agreement with our agencies, namely Rosmerta Digital Services Private Limited and Shimnit India Private Limited, to reduce cost and enhance registration process efficiencies. Due to ongoing negotiations and optimisation of the registration process, our registration numbers for the month of February 2025 (on VAHAN portal) will be temporarily impacted,” Ola had said in the filing.

Rosmerta Digital Services is a vehicle registration service provider, while Shimnit India issues high-security registration plates for electric vehicles.

“Our sales continue to be strong through February 2025 and the dip in registration will be streamlined in the next few weeks,” Ola Electric added.

Aggarwal entered the electric two-wheeler market in 2017, diversifying from his cab-hailing business. The Bengaluru-based Ola Electric has dominated India’s electric two-wheeler market the past couple of years but has faced intense competition as well as blowback over the quality of its electric scooters and its customer service.

Ola Electric’s loss widened to ₹564 crore in the December quarter from a loss of ₹376 crore in the year-ago third quarter. 

However, in a post-earnings call with analysts on 7 February, Aggarwal said that “given our gross margin expansion as well as operational cost control, we can expect auto segment EBITDA breakeven at about 50,000 monthly sales”.

Aggarwal added in the call that Ola Electric would be able to reach 50,000 units in monthly sales in a few quarters.

Also read | Will Ather’s fate be similar to Ola’s? Analysts are more cautious than optimistic.