BHUBANESWAR: The sharp rise in petrol price has come as a boon for electric vehicles (EVs), which are seeing a definitive shift of people’s choice in their favour.
Hit by the double whammy of the pandemic-induced financial hardship and the skyrocketing fuel prices, people in the Twin City are adopting electric scooters and two-wheelers in a big way.
For Lalit Krishna Nayak, a fishery entrepreneur in Bhubaneswar, the change from petrol to electric has been a revelation in itself.
He used to travel at least 40 km every day to his fish farm located at Dhauli on the outskirts of the city and back, spending more than Rs 100 on petrol everyday.
After shifting to an e-scooter, the daily commute expenses has come down to less than Rs 20.
“After buying the electric scooter, I am now saving over Rs 700 per week. Besides, the shift to e-vehicle is giving me a proud sense of being a responsible citizen and contributing to a clean environment,” he said.
The feeling is similar among EV users while the dealers in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar are all smiles. Deepak Agarwal, a dealer of Hyderabad-based Pure EV in Cuttack, said demand of electric two-wheelers has significantly increased in the Silver City as people are felling the pinch of petrol becoming more and more expensive by the day.
“Last year, we sold 15 to 20 electric mopeds and scooters every month which has now gone up to 45-50. The more encouraging part is, EVs are receiving more than 20 walk-in inquiries and over 30 queries on e-mail and phone on the prices and features of the e-scooters available for sale in the showroom,” the proprietor of EV World at Ranihat Canal Road said.
Dealer of Okinawa and owner of Electric Wheelz showroom at Palasuni, Bhubaneswar, Biswajeet Singh also said the number of enquiries on electric scooters through phone and social media has gone up from 15 to 40 per day.
“Last year, we sold 15 to 20 two-wheelers every month. The demand for electric scooters increased from February when the price of petrol touched `100 per litre in the State. We are delivering around 100 vehicles a month now,” he said.
Singh pointed out that many customers are also eagerly waiting for subsidies on electric vehicles by the State Government, which will provide a vital momentum to the segment in Odisha.
Switching to electric vehicles has its advantages and Trinath Moharana can vouch for it. Trinath has not used a petrol scooter for the last two years.
“I bought an electric scooter and used it for 14 months. I exchanged it and purchased a new electric scooter about 10 months back. In the last two years, I have saved thousands of rupees by switching to electric scooter,” he said.
Manager of Anjali Enterprises, Rashmi Ranjan Swain, said his firm took the dealership of EeVe in September 2019 and on an average they were selling 10 to 12 scooters every month.
“There has been a boom in the sale of electric scooters since February this year. On an average, we are selling 150 to 200 scooters every month. We also supply the scooters to six sub-dealers in Khurda and Nayagarh districts and they sell around 80 more vehicles per month,” he added.
Banita Routray, manager of Hero electric scooters’ dealer Clean Energy Auto Solution in Patrapada said currently the demand is higher than supply.
“Hero provided us 40 scooters on October 10 and all of them have been sold even before the end of the month,” Routray stated.