Senior industry executives ET spoke with said ease of driving and ownership along with increasing environmental awareness are propelling many women to choose electric cars over those powered by petrol and diesel. With more women joining the workforce and becoming financially empowered to make decisions, the trend is expected to continue, they added.
Tata Motors, the country’s largest electric carmaker, said women account for 24% of its EV sales while its closest rival MG Motor India put the number at 23-24%. In contrast, women’s contribution to sales of fossil-fuel cars in the country remains in the range of 11% to 12%.
Tata Motors and MG Motor together account for about 85% electric passenger vehicles sold in the country.
“The performance and the ease of owning them (EVs) is making them appeal to women,” said Gaurav Gupta, deputy managing director of MG Motor India.Electric vehicles by default are automatic, peppy, and great in terms of driveability, he said.
Low maintenance an advantage
“They are easy to maintain, entail no visits to the petrol pumps and few visits to the service station for maintenance,” Gupta said.
Shailesh Chandra, managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, said the proportion of women buyers opting for electric powertrains is double compared to 11-12% for petrol and diesel variants.
“We are seeing healthy traction for electric vehicles from the top seven metros – Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai,” he said. “Beyond that, the momentum is strong in Kerala. It is the second-largest state in terms of sales of electric vehicles with consumers in the mainstream segment also opting for the (electric) powertrain.”
Tata Motors – which sells EV versions of hatchback Tiago, sedan Tigor and SUV Nexon in the personal car segment – is “gunning for 100,000 units (in sales) this fiscal and so far is on track”, Chandra said.
He said overall industry sales “should more than double over last year”. About 55,000 electric passenger vehicles were sold in the local market in FY23.
Tata Motors plans to double its portfolio in this category with the launch of Harrier EV, Punch EV and Curvv EV over the next few months.
Chandra said electric vehicles account for 14-15% of sales at Tata Motors, which is expected to go up to 25% by 2027 and 50% by the end of the decade.
MG Motor expects 25-30% of its sales to come from electric vehicles in 2023, buoyed by the launch of its second EV model – hatchback Comet EV. Its other model in the market is ZS EV, an SUV.
At the higher end of the market, luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz is seeing nearly 15% of its sales for electric vehicles coming in from women buyers.
“Overall, we register about 15% of our sales from women buyers. For EVs, too, despite these being recent launches, the trend is similar at 13-15%,” said Santosh Iyer, managing director of Mercedes Benz India.
