11,000 electric rickshaws are sold in India every month!

According to a media report, 11,000 electric rickshaws are sold in India every month and sales are expected to increase around 9% by 2021. India is currently home to around 1.5 million e-rickshaws, which is more than the total number of electric passenger cars sold in China since 2011. While government subsidies helped the EV sector to grow in China, no incentives were offered by the Indian government.

Mahindra and Kinetic are some of the biggest players in the US$ 1.5 billion electric 3-wheeler market. Then there are smaller companies that import components from China and assemble them locally. 

Ride-hailing companies like SmartE and Ola are fueling the growth in this sector. SmartE has over 800 e-rickshaws around New Delhi, while Ola plans to introduce 10,000 e-rickshaws by April 2019.

The lack of charging infrastructure is said to be hampering the growth of EVs. At the end of 2017, there were about 425 public charging points in India. By 2022, this number is expected to rise to 2,800. SmartE has partnered with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to setup charging points near 10 stations and plans to expand to 214 stations by the end of 2020. Further, subsidies and better financing options are expected to promote the growth of e-rickshaws.

While there has been a noticeable growth in the electric 3-wheeler market in India, the same isn't true for privately owned EVs. There are just 6,000 passenger EVs in India, compared to 1.35 million in China.

Source: Bloomberg