A “very poor person” in an Indian context doesn’t own a car.
A lot of people in India use scooters and motorcycles.
The transition to electric scooters is happening. There are a few local companies in the space. They tend to be a lot easier to manufacture than electric cars.
Ola's electric scooter got a lot of bookings, hope it's good enough to replace a petrol scooter
Ather, Hero and TVS already have electric scooters, but they are not much known in the market rn.
Ola has no prior auto manufacturing experience, they are already delayed [1], their ability to deliver sales, or after sales support and do local manufacturing is as yet unproven.
Tesla came very close to collapse when they couldn't scale few times. Ola's success and the market appetite for e-bikes remains to be seen.
India's shift to electric is driven by fuel cost conscious buying rather than by climate consciousness, that means Ola (and others) do not have the support that Tesla enjoyed when their product was(still is?) not on par with ICE car from ideological buyers .
These scooters also will not be able to command a large premium to current prices and also do the volume to make in-roads in the market. There is a reason that electric is less than 1% of the market.
My uninformed estimate is that market can realistically only pick up significantly when battery chemistry evolves enough to make a decent range (> 150+ Miles) scooter priced at < $1,500 US . I have not read anything on how Ola or others are actually making batteries cheaper or better range like with say Tesla's 4680.
[1] Not unexpected or surprising for a very new player
I'm an avid fan of EVs, but a lot of issues are still there.
For eg, Ola hasn't made a single delivery yet. Also it is too costly for poor people. Forget delivery, they haven't even kept a single vehicle for test drive
Poor people in India struggle with eating twice a day, the ones who have to choose between grocery and medicine don't have 100k to give Ola for an electric 2 wheeler.
The price of petrol 2 wheelers is also shooting up.
Also range is a big issue as is the availability of chargers and electricity in general.
I read an interview in a newspaper where a daily wage labourer / small office worker said that he earned 500INR daily and has to travel 10km on his petrol bike and it's getting difficult to have any savings. I think.his exact words were "Can't explain to my kid why I didn't bring him any food item or a toy. I just don't have enough money as majority goes in petrol"
Also ruling party ministers have made bizzare claims like "only 5% ppl use petrol"