Electric vehicles sales increases in coronavirus pandemic

The global coronavirus pandemic has created a huge loss to the economy. One of the sectors affecting is the automobile but the electric vehicles segment is witnessing some growth during this lockdown, especially electric cars. Let us discuss more about electric vehicles sales. 

Electric vehicles sales

If we look the statics of Germany, Europe is the largest car market new car registrations in the first half of 2020 declined by 35% compared to the same period in 2019 and in 2020 the case came to worse. In Spain, it is 51%, UK 49%, Italy 46% and France 39%. But the electric vehicles segment is still growing both full battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). In Germany, EV sales from January to June increased from 47,584 in 2019 to 93,848 in 2020. This is an excellent performance during this economic and health situations.

France has also witnessed a higher shift to electric vehicles in 2020. Similarly, Seven years ago, there were only 3,500 plug-in cars in the UK but now there are 300,000, 120,000 of them are electric vehicles.

Many major car manufacturers are now launching electric vehicles and many governments and municipalities are legislating and regulating for the adoption of electric vehicles.  At current the ownership of electric cars in the UK and globally are low to 6% of new cars sold in the UK in June 2020 was the fully electric car, the growth rate is high.

Coronavirus impacts on sales of EVs

The shift to electric vehicles during the pandemic is also due to some of the reasons is the variety of EVs have been increased in the last six months and each new models are designed to needs of the customers that suit their family.

The range, charging and size have been a major concern of the customers that have been specially taken care of by the automakers. The extent that the COVID-19 experience increased our concern for the environment.

Recently, 5,704 new electric cars were registered in July in Norway. They account 52.8 per cent of new passenger car registrations with 755 units. Audi-eTron is the most popular model across the country. When compared to August 2019, there was an increase of 21 per cent with 38,615 electric cars since the starting of the year, whereas last year the electric car market was 11% down on the same period. The registrations of cars came down in April and May due to the corona pandemic. 

In addition to the 5,704 electric cars, 4,408 new registrations in July and 1,881 plug-in hybrids were added to the 5,704 new registrations in Norway. The market share of electric vehicles was 17.4% compared to the last year’s month. It has recorded an increase of 56 per cent. In addition, 950 new hybrid cars were registered which is 38.9% dropped compared to last year in August 2019 with hybrid cars accounting for a market share of 8.8 per cent.

The Audi e-tron bagged the highest number of new registrations across all drive types in August of this year similar to July. Altogether 755 new electric cars ply on roads which include the e-tron quattro and e-tron Sportback. Another electric vehicle is the Mercedes EQC which comes next to e-tron, it has lost over 100 registrations compared to the previous month and still comes in at 595 units. The VW Golf and Hyundai Kona takes the third and fourth place.

The other electric cars such as MG ZS EV with 281 vehicles, the Nissan Leaf 270 registrations, the Tesla Model 3 with 264 vehicles and the Renault Zoe 221 units.

Electric vehicles sales in India 

The electric two-wheelers are on high demand than any other vehicles categories in India. In terms of electric vehicles sales in FY 2020, Okinawa has become the bestselling electric scooter brand in India. Okinawa with the sales of 10,133 units, has beaten the Hero Electric by more than 2,700 units. Ather Energy with sales numbers 2,908 is in the third position and Ampere Vehicles with 2,500. Whereas Revolt sold 1,062 units.

India’s leading two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero Electric has sold over 3,546 units through online sales with the total number of sales 4,900 units from 20th April till date. The company has targeted for the year at over 50,000 units.

IIT Hyderabad incubated Pure EV is India’s largest two-wheeler market in the world had also witnessed 30% rise in the sales of its electric two-wheelers in June. It expects the sales to double in the next quarter and by Diwali, it will reach to touch the sales of 1,000 units per month.

Nishanth Dongari, the founder of Pure EV said that “There is a significant desire to own a two-wheeler, and especially preferring the electric two-wheeler due to low cost of ownership and portable charging of batteries. Overall, we are anticipating a 300 per cent growth rate in the current financial year ending March 2021, compared with the previous year.”

India’s leading electric two-wheeler manufacturer and an electric mobility subsidiary of Greaves Cotton Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd has reported a surge in sales since the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic was relaxed by the government from June 1. It has registered a 60% per cent increase in retail sales post-Unlock 1.

According to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), 1,56,000 EVs were sold in the year-end March 2020, which means 20% from a year ago.

During the last week, the MG Motors dealership in Kochi, Kerala has witnessed the sales of 11 units of brand new MG ZS EV to the customers. This is the highest units of electric car delivered by a single dealer in 1 day. Similarly, last year the MG Motor India had created a record of delivering more than 700 units of Hector SUVs across India in 1 day.

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