In about 7 months, our petrol scooter will be 15 years old. That means we have to decide whether we want to extend the registration by another 5 years or buy a new one. If we decide to buy a new scooter then the question arises whether we should go with a petrol scooter again or go for an EV.


Let me try to answer the first question. Should we renew the registration for another 5 years or should we go for a new scooter. The renewal cost is Rs. 1000 plus fitness test of say Rs. 500. Our scooter is in good working condition and I am sure it will pass the fitness test with some minor repairs. But without a bribe it will not pass the test. So putting renewal cost, repairs, fitness test and bribes should not cost more than Rs. 5000. Seems like a reasonable price to pay for another 5 years of service. But the family prefers a new scooter. So the decision is quite simple and straight forward. Buy a new vehicle :).


Going on to the next question of whether to go with a petrol scooter or electric one, I have done a comparison about 3 years ago and concluded that petrol is a better option at that time. Does that conclusion still hold true with our current situation and cost of vehicles? Lets find out.


Upfront costs

Going with a simple petrol scooter say like a Honda Dio, the on-road price comes to about Rs. 90,000 in Bangalore. For EV we have a lot of options and a wide range of prices. But if we go with a reputed name, like Ather, Chetak, TVS etc, the cost comes to around Rs. 1,10,000 to Rs. 1,30,000. Let’s go with TVS Orbiter at about Rs. 1,10,000 on-road price after subsidy.


Maintenance costs

There are no reliable numbers for maintenance that I can go with, but lets assume Rs. 4,000 for petrol and Rs. 2,000 for electric vehicle per year.


Electric vehicles have one more maintenance cost which is the battery. Most EV 2-wheeler manufacturers are giving a 5 year (extended) warranty on batteries. From what I read, batteries will lose 20% of their capacity in 5 years. I know the battery will not need to be replaced right away, but lets assume I change it after 5 years and then again after 10 years before it goes out of service on the 15th year. Assuming battery cost to be 50% of the vehicle cost, I may spend around Rs. 1,00,000 on battery in the 15 years of its service.


On the other hand, the petrol scooter also needs the battery to be replaced every 3 to 5 years. For a full 15 years service, I will have to spend about Rs. 5000 on batteries.


Running costs

This is where the biggest change has occurred since my last analysis 3 years ago. At the time, I said, we were driving about 1500 kms/year. That has now increased to 7000 kms/year. The one change in our life that has led to this increase in driving, is my daughter choosing to go to school for a couple of days a week.


Basically the school is about 10 kms from where we live. There is no school bus service. My better half drives our daughter to school in the morning and comes back home. Then she goes again in the afternoon to pick her up and back again. That is 40 kms driving for one day of school. Over a week, in addition to school and other activities, we also have the usual grocery related trips. All put together we are clocking about 7000 kms per year now.


Assuming the petrol scooter will give about 45 kms/liter, we will need about 7000 kms / 45 kmpl liters. Assuming petrol price of Rs. 105 per liter, the total cost of petrol over 15 years will be 7000 kms / 45 kmpl x 105 Rs/l x 15 years = Rs. 2,45,000.


The advertised IDC (Indian Driving Cycle) range of TVS Orbiter is 158 kms, but I really doubt one could achieve it. I will go with a more conservative 90 kms per full charge. Now, to charge the 3.1 kWh battery, we most likely will use more energy than that because of losses. So lets assume we use 4 kWh (units) of electricity. Currently the price of 1 unit of electricity is Rs. 8.3 but lets assume a round figure of Rs. 9/unit.


Then, to drive 7000 kms, we need to charge the scooter about 7000 kms / 90 km/charge times. Each charge requires 4 units of electricity at Rs. 9/units. So the total cost over 15 years comes out to be 7000 kms / 90 km/charge x 4 units/charge x Rs. 9/unit x 15 years = Rs. 42,000.


Final tally

With the numbers above, the final cost comes out as follows:

Vehicle Honda Dio (ICE) TVS Orbiter (EV)
On-road price 90,000 1,10,000
Maintenance 60,000 30,000
Battery 5,000 1,00,000
Fuel 2,45,000 42,000
Total 4,00,000 2,82,000


It seems like electric vehicle is a better deal compared to petrol vehicle. Even if I assume same maintenance cost for both and no battery cost for petrol vehicle, the EV comes out ahead just because of the amount of driving. The best part is that I could buy a solar panel and reduce the fuel cost to zero for EV.


The important point is that we should be driving at least 2500 kms per year to make EV a better option than petrol vehicle given what we know today. Of course things always change and we cannot predict the future. For now, we think we will have to drive 7000 kms/year which should more than offset the initial cost of an EV + battery replacement costs.


Having decided on an electric scooter, I will publish the list out the EVs I have shortlisted in my next post. In the meantime, if you have a good EV in mind, please let me know in the comments below. While I said I decided on an EV based on financial analysis, please let me know if you think EV is a bad idea for some reason other than financial (like say bad service, poor build quality etc).