The past couple of months might have been the harshest for the Indian automotive industry but things are slowly and gradually gaining pace again. The EV industry in India is showing signs of revival too as Okinawa, one of the major players in the EV segment, announced selling over 1000 scooters within a month since the brand resumed operations post the government relaxing rules on the economic activities. The brand achieved this with 60-70% touchpoints operational out of 350+ dealers across India.
When did their operations restart again?
The company partially resumed operations across dealerships on May 11, 2020, with 25 percent workforce and strict safety measures for COVID 19 prevention. Okinawa has already dispatched over 1200 vehicles in 1st Month of Operations after lockdown. Amidst COVID-19 spread, the company had issued an advisory to its dealership network on maintaining safety measures as they resume operations.
The brand has been taking all the necessary precautions in terms of the safety of its stakeholders. All the products are sanitized before they are dispatched from the assembly at the manufacturing unit and dealer partners sanitize them again post receiving the products. To ensure the safety of customers and dealers, proper thermal screening is conducted at all the dealerships of Okinawa, as per the advisory issued by the company.
Okinawa has reached the milestone number of retailing 1000 electric vehicles, when not all the dealerships are fully operational, which highlights the growing demand of EVs among users. Okinawa also tops the chart in high-speed electric scooter sales in India in FY2020 and the only EV player to cross the 10,000 unit sales figure in India.
“We have witnessed a good demand in the market for electric scooters. We have retailed over 1000 electric scooters despite limited dealerships operational during the current COVID 19 outbreak. This has indeed encouraged us, as we understand that the market is gaining its strength back. We also anticipate that, due to COVID-19 outbreak, a lot of people would want to avoid using public transport, which might increase the demand for new vehicles for Personal Mobility. With the increasing awareness around the economic viability of electric vehicles, we might witness a sharp inclination towards EVs among the buyers,” said Mr Jeetender Sharma- MD, Okinawa.
Okinawa further plans to accelerate its marketing activities to spread awareness about EV adoption. Amidst the COVID-19 scenario, Okinawa also announced a hike in dealer margin from 8 percent to 11 percent to enable its dealer network to make more profits.
Also read: Okinawa To Introduce Electric Motorcycle With 100 km/h Top Speed, 150 km Range
Okinawa recently announced its new custom hand-painting service for its electric scooter buyers in India. This service is being offered on current models and future launches as well. The company through a press release stated that the scooters will be hand-painted by professional artists with premium quality of colours based on the custom theme selected by the buyer. Every theme will be designed by hand to highlight the particular details on the scooter.