How electric vehicles industry is coming out of Covid-19 or Coronavirus crisis?

Electric vehicles companies will be coming out of the COVID-19 or Coronavirus pandemic the fastest because of the simple demand and supply logic. Transportation has become one of the necessities like food, shelter, and clothing for humans, without transportation life is unimaginable, with the incoming slowdown in public transportation the necessity for commercial or personal vehicles would be at a high and electric or battery-operated vehicles will see good days soon after the lockdown. Electric scooters have already found a warm place in the heart of Indian families because of its advanced features and economic nature. Even the e-rickshaw (toto) product line will be moving out as the lockdown gets lifted because of the significant support electric vehicles segment is receiving from the government with subsidiaries and loans. E-rickshaw is promoting the entrepreneurial culture in the interiors of India by letting the unemployed youth support themselves and their families. And so is the case with all the other electric or battery-operated vehicles like e-loader as well.

Upon the above, companies like Deltic took the right initiatives like letting their dealers know how to leave the inventory idle across the lockdown so that they don’t have to bear any operational losses like a battery failure. This one and other such simple suggestions saved the dealers from unprecedented losses. Unfortunately, a plethora of local brands that have crowded the market couldn’t take such intelligent initiatives on time and that will result in major losses for their dealers. But unorganized groups and locally manufactured brands can’t be taken as a benchmark for the industry.

The other good part about this segment is the ease of doing business and being friendly for dealers of every kind, unlike the traditional automobile industry, electric vehicles act in a practical way. In the traditional segment (regular fuel - petrol or diesel) the inventory is almost pushed to the dealers, dealers have to buy a fixed amount of inventory. Most of it is done by taking heavy loans from the banks and a slowdown in sales nearly destroys the dealer. The electric vehicles (e-rickshaw or toto, e-scooter) segment is more friendly, young brands like Deltic take no brand fees and the inventory is brought as orders are in pipeline. So the unusual constraints and pressures are rather relaxed hence the dealers or franchise owners of EV (electric vehicles) are in a much better position.

We spoke with a few dealers of Deltic, a unit of Delta Autocorp LLP, and all of them mentioned that the market looks positive. Lockdown has surely affected a lot of things but the battery-operated vehicles industry won’t suffer a lot once the lockdown is over. Many startups and companies took a humanitarian stand and let go of capitalistic obviousness by supporting their employees at every level. When speaking to a Deltic executive we got told how last month's full salaries got circulated and everyone is facing this critical time together as a family.

COVID-19 has been tackled in one of the finest ways by the Indian government and citizens, we hope that the market stability would be achieved soon enough for everyone including the EV (electric vehicles industry). It is amazing to see a new industry in such a good shape as the electric or battery-operated vehicles industry lead the way for a more sustainable and greener tomorrow.