Domestic electronic bike makers are expecting a 5-10 per cent jump in their sales on the back of a steep hike in fuel prices, which is giving jitters to the automobile companies.
Within a day of the announcement of the increase in fuel prices by Union government, the electronic-bike manufacturers have witnessed record sales in their bikes and received lot of enquiries for setting up dealers network across the country.
"Hike in petrol prices is a positive development for the e-bike industry and we expect it will boost the sales of battery driven bikes by at least 5-10 per cent," Avon Cycles Senior Manager (Marketing), U S Dubey said.
Similarly, Hero Cycles, which sells e-bike under Hero Electric brand, is quite upbeat over this development and hoping a big push to the e-bike sales this year.
"Just a day after the announcement of the hike in fuel prices, we have sold 300 e-bikes in a single day which is our highest ever sales per day," Hero Cycles Managing Director Vijay Munjal said.
Besides, the company, which has 100 dedicated dealers across the country, has received record number of enquiries from people across the country to take company's dealership for selling Hero Electric bike. "A lot of people have expressed interest in having our company's dealership which will ultimately provide impetus to e-bike sales," he said.
Industry experts are of the view that e-bike industry is poised to observe close to 10 per cent growth in sales in short term in view of rising petrol prices as people would prefer e-bike, whose running cost is 10 paise per km, in order to reduce their fuel bill.
Presently, the e-bike market in the country stands at Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) with the involvement of 40 players and it is expected to grow 10 times within next 4 years in the country.
