EV sales in India set for new high? Over 2.78 lakh units sold in first 3 months

India could see 2023 as the record year of EV sales if trend from the first three months of the year remains true. Since January this year, Indians have bought 2.78 lakh electric vehicles so far, at an average of more than 90,000 EVs every month. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said this in his written reply to Lok Sabha on Thursday. At this rate, India is likely to improve the previous best of one million EVs sold last year by the end of 2023.

Gadkari sourced EV sales data from his ministry's Vahan portal registration record. According to Vahan, EV registration in India jumped to 10.20 lakh in 2022 from merely 3.29 lakh in 2021, almost a three-fold increase. The minister said that the states which are not part of Vahan portal for registration are likely to be included in coming days. This will help collate more data on EV registration. He said Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are in the process of migrating to Vahan. He did not specify if states like Telangana and Lakshadweep will be included in the portal soon.

Krishan Pal Gurjar, Minister of State for Heavy Industries, recently said that till March 15 this year, Indians have bought 21.70 lakh electric vehicles. He revealed that Uttar Pradesh tops the list with most number of electric vehicles. India's largest state registered 4.65 lakh EVs within the first three months. UP is followed by states like Maharashtra with 2.26 lakh EV registration while Delhi registered around 2.03 lakh EVs.

The electric vehicle industry in India is dominated by Tata Motors in the four-wheeler passenger vehicle segment. With models like Nexon EV, Tigor EV and Tiago EV, Tata holds over 80 per cent of the market share. In the electric two-wheeler segment, manufacturers like Hero, Ola Electric, Ather Energy and Okinawa Autotech are some of the leading companies driving up sales.

Gadkari also said that since the vehicle scrappage policy has come into effect, India has seen around 8,220 old vehicles scrapped between January last year nad March 20 this year. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with most scrapped vehicles at 6,247 units. Gujarat and Assam are placed second and third with 1,244 and 357 units scrapped respectively.