Ten electric models, counted: what our own catalogue says about where EV demand actually forms

Demand statistics for electric vehicles are usually arguments about a market nobody can see clearly, so here is one dataset that can be checked line by line: our own demo catalogue. It carries exactly ten battery-electric records — counted from the vehicle files, not estimated — and while every price and range figure in it is MotoSutra sample data, the shape of the shelf is a deliberate product decision, and its shape tells a consistent story about where electric buying pressure is assumed to sit.

The count, and the facets it unlocks

Five cars, four scooters, one electric commuter motorcycle. The count is what populated the site’s /electric/ landing page and its three sub-facets — the cars, scooters and bikes shelves under it each draw from records whose fuel type is electric only, so the Vida, a motorcycle by chassis and by listing, is the sole occupant of the electric bikes facet while the 450X, Rizta, Chetak and iQube fill the scooter one. No hybrid or CNG record leaks into these pages; the facets are a clean read of what the catalogue believes is actually plug-in.

The two-wheeler shelf is a narrow, dense corridor. The Chetak opens at ₹1.15 lakh and the range-topping Ather 450X closes at ₹1.66 lakh — a 51,000-rupee spread that covers five machines once the Vida’s ₹1.54 lakh is included. Every electric two-wheeler record carries 3.0-3.9 kWh, and claimed range runs 108 to 170 km. That is a market designed around the second vehicle and the home socket, not around the road trip.

The car shelf, and the hole in it

The electric cars spread from the Punch EV’s ₹9.79 lakh entry to the EX30 Twin Motor’s ₹57.90 lakh, and the middle is doing all the work: ₹9.79-12.49 lakh (Punch EV), ₹12.49-15.99 lakh (Nexon EV), ₹17.99-22.49 lakh (ZS EV), ₹24.99-26.99 lakh (Atto 3). Then nothing. The gap between the Atto 3’s ceiling and the EX30’s floor is close to ₹15 lakh of empty shelf — roughly the distance between a family SUV and a premium import — and the catalogue’s quiet claim is that Indian electric demand does not currently live there. Battery sizes make the same argument: 25 kWh at the entry, 46.08 and 50.3 kWh in the volume band, 60.5 and 69 kWh where the money stops being about value.

What owners report against what certificates claim

This is the shelf’s most useful layer, because the records carry both numbers. The 450X claims 115 km and our rider reports land at 85-95 km. The Vida claims 165 and reports come back at 130-155. The Nexon EV’s 489 km claim is paired, in its own record, with a stated real-world expectation of 300-350 km with the air conditioning running; the ZS EV’s 461 with “low-to-mid 300s”. Two-wheelers lose about a fifth of the certificate; cars lose about thirty per cent and never recover it on the highway. Any demand story that ignores that discount is selling the brochure, not the product.

Sample ratings close the loop, and they are the most level-handed numbers on the shelf: all ten records score between 4.0 and 4.4 overall, the 450X highest at 4.4 and the Punch EV, Chetak and Vida sharing the floor at 4.0. No electric model on this catalogue is a runaway favourite and none is a dud — the spread says the products are good and the compromises are structural: charging access, real-world range, and the price corridor between twenty-seven and forty-two lakh where this shelf, deliberately, has nothing to sell you.