An increasing number of fires, faulty batteries, the absence of promised features, range anxiety, and other manufacturing defects have been creating havoc in the Indian electric vehicle (EV) market. Against this backdrop, EV manufacturers need to take the onus on themselves to make EVs a safer option while the government must come up with a comprehensive action plan to drive EV adoption in the country, without hurting customers’ interests, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) of India witnessed a threefold growth in EV sales from 1,34,821 in 2020-21 to 4,29,217 units in 2021-22, signifying an unstoppable ascent in coming years.

Mahindra Electric Mobility reported a more than three-fold jump in its electric three-wheeler sales in 2021-22. Meanwhile, even as Tata Motor’s overall revenue fell by 11.5% in the March 2022 quarter, its EV segment registered sales of 72,468 units in April 2022, 74% higher than the previous year.

Snigdha Parida, Senior Analyst in Thematic Intelligence team at GlobalData says: “Fierce competition among Indian automakers is forcing them to make excessive vehicle enhancements of substandard quality, hampering market sentiment. This might delay India’s electric mobility prospects.”

Reportedly, EV two-wheelers manufactured by Okinawa Autotech, Pure EV, Ola Electric, and Jitendra EV made frequent headlines for catching fire over the past three months, which led to the recall of 7,000 vehicles. At the same time, the government has asked EV players to halt any new model launches until the investigation is finished.

Parida concludes: “Despite the industry’s medium-term promise, these incidents have dampened the enthusiasm for Indian government’s projects such as FAME I and FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles). As a result, the goal for green mobility might be delayed amid the negative market sentiments.

“To win in this promising market, EV players need a state-of-the-art manufacturing process and robust ecosystem to improve R&D, the performance of batteries, the quality of the equipment used in EVs, last-mile recharge, and the overall customer experience.”