Electric Cars Sales Hit 18 Month High In October 2024: Tata Motors Dominates
India’s festive season has done wonders for the EV sector. October 2024 marked a significant rebound in electric car sales, with retail hitting a record 10,534 units—a 38% year-on-year increase from October 2023 and a 73% jump from September 2024’s dismal 6,098 units. India’s own Tata Motors continues to lead in EV sales numbers.
This spike in electric vehicle sales can be attributed to various factors. The most important would be the discounted deals and offers that were announced by various OEMs last month. Another reason was the festive season. Dhanteras and Diwali are considered auspicious for new vehicle purchases, and Octobers usually see retail sales blow up and new products hit the market.
Another reason for the high sales figures is that October witnessed a couple of interesting EV launches like the BYD EMax 7, KIA EV9 and the start of deliveries for the MG Windsor that was originally launched in September. The Windsor is already a success, as it rose to the status of India’s fastest-booked EV. Over 15000 units of it were booked within 24 hours. The manufacturer started commencing deliveries in October and the same seems to have contributed to the high monthly numbers.
Electric Car Sales In 2024
It is interesting to see the EV sales having made this rebound, as they were not even included in the two-year PM E-Drive Scheme, which kicked in on October 1, 2024. This calendar year started on a high for electric vehicles, with the sales touching 8,481 units in January. It, however, declined by 11% in February and soared to a huge high (9,769 units) in March 2024. In the months that followed, sales dropped and September had a 17-month low of 6,098 units. The next month posted new highs.
Tata Motors Dominates!
Tata Motors has long been the unrivalled leader of the EV space. The Indian giant continued to maintain the title in October as well. 6,125 EVs sold last month were from Tata Motors. This marks a 9.53% Y-o-Y growth and 62% more than September numbers. Tata has the widest EV portfolio in India, consisting of the Tiago.EV, Tigor EV, XPres-T, Punch.EV, Nexon.EV and Curvv EV. Further plans of expansion include the launch of Harrier.EV, Safari.EV and the Sierra.EV in the not-so distant future.
The Indian manufacturer enjoys a market share of 58% in the electric vehicle segment, as of October. This was a massive 65% in the January-October 2024 period. These, if you see, are lesser than Tata’s year-ago numbers which stood at 73% and 74% respectively.
Tata Motors recently announced massive price cuts and benefits on almost every one of their EVs other than the newly launched Curvv.EV. The electric Nexon’s price went down by 3 lakh, while the Punch EV enjoyed cuts of 1.2 lakh. Even the entry-point- Tiago.EV benefitted from a price cut of 40,000. In addition to these, six months of free charging at any of the over 5,500 Tata Power charging points were also being offered. These offers and benefits were, however, time-capped- valid till October 31, 2024. This was a move to bank on the festive season, that turned out to be fruitful.
Windsor EV Had A Rolling Start, Steady Growth For MG
The third model in MG’s Indian portfolio, the Windsor EV has had a great start. It managed to emerge as the country’s fastest-booked EV. MG Windsor offers two ways of ownership- owning the car and the battery and the Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) model. The manufacturer also posted the milestone of delivering 101 Windsor EVs on a single day in Bengaluru.
The ZS EV, Comet and Windsor combined sold 2,509 units in October. This is a 166% growth in MG India’s EV sales, when pitted against the 2023 numbers, and a 150% hike over the September figures. October numbers have made JSW MG Motor India’s market share grow to 24%. In another milestone event, MG delivered 100+ electric vehicles in Delhi-NCR on a single day.
New Highs For Mahindra XUV 400
The XUV 400 is currently, Mahindra’s only electric vehicle on sale. It, however, managed to sell good numbers in October. Backed by hefty discounts and benefits, 902 units of the EV were sold- its highest to date. Up to 2 lakh discounts are available on the EV, and additional cuts can be availed on MY23 units. These seem to have helped in clocking volumes.
October stats indicate Mahindra to enjoy an 8.56% market share with its sole all-electric offering. The carmaker is also heard to be in talks with Volkswagen regarding the development and sales of its future EV portfolio. It already has a slew of highly anticipated all-electric offerings planned for launch in the coming months.
Other OEMs And Their EV Sales Performance
Other OEMs like BYD and Citroen also posted impressive numbers (by their own respective standards) in October. BYD current has the Atto 3 SUV, Seal sedan and the new eMAX 7 MPV on sale here. It managed to sell 361 units last month, which translates to a 110% increase over the September numbers. 254 units of the Citroen e-C3 were sold in October. Hyundai and Kia posted combined sales of 68 EVs.
Luxury Electric Car Sales
October 2024 was a strong month for luxury electric vehicles (EV) as well. BMW continues to lead by posting sales of 139 units, while Mercedes-Benz recorded sales of 146 EVs. Volvo managed to sell 15 electric vehicles. Audi and Porsche seem to have sold 4 EVs each. Even Rolls Royce posted the sale of 3 Spectre EVs last month. Interestingly, Jaguar Land Rover could not sell even a single unit of its i-Pace EV during the month!