Most States Struggle to Achieve their Electric Two-wheeler sales targets

E-mobility has been heralded as a game-changer in India’s transportation sector, offering a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution to address the pressing challenges of pollution and fuel dependency. The early strides in adopting electric vehicles (EVs) can be largely attributed to a promising policy landscape at both the national and state levels. Numerous states across India have formulated their unique electric vehicle policies. While some states have set a segment-wise target, others have opted for an estimated electrification goal. However, despite these commendable initiatives, none of these states are on track to meet their EV targets.

Different states have established targets in terms of absolute numbers as well as percentage to be converted to electric vehicles by a specific target year. As can be seen from the chart below, for Electric two-wheeler (E2W) segment,

  • Kerala aimed to have 2,00,000 E2Ws on the roads by 2020 with a quick rollout, but unfortunately, it couldn’t achieve this goal within the set time and missed the target.
  • Chhattisgarh aimed to deploy the highest number of E2Ws, approximately 1,70,000 in total. However, up until July 2023, the state has managed to accomplish only 27,127 of its intended targets.
  • Assam is significantly behind its target. The state had set a target to achieve 10,00,000 E2Ws by 2026, but as of July 2023, it has not even reached 5% of its goal.

Gujarat is the only state that has not only achieved its E2W target but also surpassed it. It had set a target of 1,10,000 E2W by 2025, and it, reached a total of 1,19,448 E2Ws as of July 2023 itself. Of all two-wheeler sales, EV’s in Gujarat now account for 5.38% of total two-wheeler sales.

Bihar also is another notable state who is almost close in achieving its E2W target. With a goal of reaching 24,000 E2W sales by 2024, the state has already achieved an impressive 81% of its target. However, given the state population the target set by the state government was on a conservative side.

Certain states, including Rajasthan and Jharkhand, have set penetration targets based on percentages. While Rajasthan has been making notable progress in the adoption of electric three-wheelers, it is also aiming to excel in E2W adoption.

  • Rajasthan announced its revised EV policy in September 2022 and set a target of 15% for E2W adoption. The state has already achieved 6.6% of its goal within a very short span of time. The reason behind staying on the track to reach the target can be attributed to the government’s support, the effective EV policy, and the fact that consumers in Rajasthan believe that the motivation behind purchasing E2W is the low running cost as compared to ICE 2W.
  • Jharkhand announced its EV Policy in October 2022 and aimed to achieve a 10% share of E2Ws in the total number of newly registered two wheelers in state by 2027. However, as of July 2023, the state has only achieved 1.94% of its target.

Currently, each state has different approach to set targets for EV’s sales. It’s important for many states to rethink their strategies to increase adoption of EV’s by adding more incentives and set required safety norms. Also, states should formulate their strategies for a longer duration and that should align with national target as well to last until 2030.