Hyderabad: Sales of e-vehicles pick up

Secunderabad: With oil prices touching new heights, sales of electric vehicles, mostly two-wheelers, which need less operational costs as compared to normal vehicles, have picked up in twin cities. Electric vehicles effectively address three major issues: air pollution, climate impact through carbon dioxide and fuel consumption.

"There has been a good demand for e-vehicles for over a month, especially as fuel prices are on the rise. I received around 500 orders in the past one month and also got enquiries from other States. Our starting price of two-wheeler electric vehicle is Rs 35,000," said Venkateswara Gupta, founder of Vasavi Wheels, Trimulgherry.

Regional Transport Authority (RTA) data says that by January-end, there were around 4,535 e-vehicles on the roads – 4,541 are hybrid diesel-electric vehicles and 1,778 are hybrid-petrol electric vehicles.

"Initially when electric vehicles were introduced, those who showed interest were mainly environmentalists who understood the difference between pollution emitting engines (ICE engine) and zero emitting ones. At present,fuel prices are driving a surge in electric two-wheeler sales. There is also increasing demand for three-wheeler which are used by logistics and e-commerce companies for deliveries. These are cost-effective with low maintenance," said A Devender Reddy, founder of Eride, Uppal.

"The normal vehicle has more than 2,000 moving components whereas an e-vehicle has hardly 20 components, which help reduce vehicular emissions. As government is providing various subsidies like exemption of road tax and registration fee, people are opting for electric vehicles, which are environment friendly and also save money in the long run,"said Ashhar Ahmed Shaikh, founder of director of Skill Shark Edu Tech.