How Many EVs Are Sold in India?

According to a statement given by an Indian government trade official, the country is planning to bolster its EV strategy by bringing in investors from countries like Germany and South Korea and implementing a policy strengthening the EV industry in the country. This announcement follows ongoing talks between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Prime Minister Narendra Modi about building a Tesla factory in the country. Even if this plan comes to fruition, electric cars will most likely still play only a minor role in the electrification of India's vehicle fleet.

As our chart based on government data from the Vahan Dashboard aggregated by Clean Mobility Shift shows, only 72,930 four-wheeled electric vehicles were newly registered in India in 2023. While this is almost double the number of 2022, the South Asian nation's shift to e-mobility is mainly focused on two-wheelers like mopeds as well as e-rickshaws and other three-wheelers, which comprised 56 and 38 percent, respectively, of the total EV sales in the country this past year.

Electric vehicles had a market share of 6.3 percent in 2023, a considerable increase compared to pre-pandemic levels of just below one percent. According to reporting by TechCrunch, it remains to be seen if the 2023 growth bolstered by more than $600 million in government subsidies via the FAME-II program can be carried over into 2023. The current government-set target is a 30 percent EV market share by 2030.

From a global perspective, China is still the standard bearer of the ongoing push for fleet electrification. CleanTechnica data shows that 22 percent of all new cars sold in the East Asian country in 2022 were fully electric. When figuring in plug-in hybrids, the EV market share stood at 30 percent in the corresponding year. In Europe, electric vehicles had a market share of 23 percent of all newly registered vehicles, while battery electric vehicles alone made up 14 percent of the total market.