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Ola Electric and Ather Energy, the two prominent electric mobility startups that have been at the forefront of driving electric vehicle (EV) adoption in the country, witnessed a significant drop in their escooter registrations in July.

While Ola Electric has been seeing a constant decline in its vehicle registrations over the past three months, the drop in Ather Energy’s registrations came as a surprise as the startup has been seeing a month-on-month growth in its vehicle registrations for the last few months.

In fact, it is pertinent to note that while Ola Electric has come under negative light several times because of fire incidents with its escooters, Ather Energy’s escooters have so far not seen any such incidents. 

Ather Energy saw a 66% MoM drop in its vehicle registrations in July to 1,283 units, as per Vahan data on August 2. In May and June, the numbers stood at 3,338 and 3,829, respectively.

Meanwhile, Ravneet Phokela, Chief Business Officer of Ather Energy said, “We delivered 2,389 scooters in July, registering a 24% year-on-year growth. Most of the sales are from the last 10 days of the month, as our production line was shut for a couple of weeks to facilitate the transition to the new product.”

In July, Ather Energy also launched its next generation of 450 series of scooters – the 450X Gen 3. Phokela also said that the startup expanded its retail footprint to three new markets in the month.

On the other hand, the demand for Ola Electric’s escooters seems to be declining as the startup has been seeing a MoM fall in its registrations. 

From a record registration of 12,705 units in April, the registrations fell over one-third to 3,856 units in July. Over the past three months, it has seen a MoM decline in its escooter registrations in the range of 27% to 36%.

In July, the drop was a little over 34% from the June registration volume of 5,891 units.

Recently, reports said that Ola Electric suspended production of its electric scooters at Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri plant for about a week. The Bhavish Aggarwal-led startup attributed the shutdown to annual maintenance and installation of new machines.

Meanwhile, despite the seeming decline in its core electric two-wheeler segment, Ola Electric has announced new plans for the EV segment.

The startup recently said it would invest $500 Mn to set up a Battery Innovation Center (BIC) in Bengaluru which would be an R&D facility for EV battery cells. Ola Electric also unveiled its first indigenously developed EV battery cell. Its mass production is expected to begin by 2023.

Meanwhile, 2023 could be more crucial for the startup as it also plans to start manufacturing its electric four-wheelers in the year.

It is also important to note that the startup has been issued show-cause notice by the government over the fire incidents involving its vehicles.

Ola Electric was not immediately available to respond to Inc42’s request for comment on the decline in its vehicle registration numbers.

Overall EV 2W Registrations 

The decline in registration numbers of Ather Energy and Ola Electric comes at a time when the overall two-wheeler EV registrations increased 5% to 44,459 units in July from 42,302 units in June, as per Vahan data on August 2.

In fact, other major players in the electric two-wheeler segment including Okinawa Autotech, Hero Electric, Bajaj Auto, and Jitendra EV saw their EV registration volumes go up in July. 

Okinawa Autotech’s vehicle registrations were up 16% MoM to 8,094 units in July. 

Meanwhile, Hero Electric led the chart last month with the highest vehicle registrations at 8,952 units, up over 37% from 6,504 units registered in June.

Besides Ola Electric and Ather Energy, Pure EV and Ampere Vehicles are the other two major electric two-wheeler manufacturers who saw a dip in registrations in July.