The year draws to a close, a very significant one for the electric mobility industry across the major markets.
Africa Remains the Most Intense
For us, the most significant market of 2025 was Africa. The continent is finally gaining momentum with multiple startups gaining some traction. We recognised the potential early in the year with a series of introductory analyses on the Boda economy.
The market, particularly Kenya, is coming out of a currency-crash-driven recession. Motorcycle sales have crashed in the last three years as import prices and pump prices both skyrocketed. However, green shoots are now visible, and local experts argue that electric motorcycles are expected to corner most of this recovery.
As a result, 2025 was more active for Africa than anywhere else. The highlight was Spiro’s mega USD 100 million fundraise for deploying motorcycles across Africa. With the capital raise, Spiro has access to more money than the rest of the continent’s startups combined. It does not appear like a fair game, and we pondered the lack of any wiggle room for the others.
InsightEV also noticed that the Chinese have been extremely nimble when it comes to Africa. Almost every startup on the continent is deploying China-made hardware. More and new Chinese manufacturers want to jump into the market as actors like Ampersand open their swapping networks to drive better efficiency.
Meanwhile, the Indians, the only other significant group with meaningful E2W technology and scale, have been napping, or as they say, too busy with the local market. These are early days, but while China has deployed about 100,000 motorcycles through various local startups, the Indian contribution has been a trickle. We don’t expect things to change fast, as the Indians are not known for developing products in a hurry.
This was also the year when we managed to interview most of the important participants in Africa. We sat down with Michael Spencer of Zeno Moto twice – once in the early days when Zeno emerged from stealth mode, and once again when they started shipping motorcycles to Kenya. Zeno had an exciting year and has started its rollout in Kenya. The startup is one of the very few players in Africa that have designed and engineered their motorcycle from scratch.
We also spoke to Roam’s Filip Lövström, as one of the earliest startups in Africa, started a crowdfunding campaign. Compared to other players in Africa, Roam’s business model is capital efficient, selling the motorcycle and battery to the rider.
One of our most important interviews this year was with the leadership at Ecosystem Integrity Fund (EIF). The California-based fund has tripled down on battery swapping, investing in key swapping players – Battery Smart in India, Ampersand in Africa, and Vammo in Brazil.
Talking of Ampersand, we also spoke to Josh Whale, the entrepreneur with the most experience in the African mobility ecosystem. This was right at the time when Ampersand opened its swapping network to other participants, and Chinese-factory-brand Wylex was the first one to take the bait.
India Remains Promising Despite Setbacks
Some time in the middle of the year, we pointed out that despite the media attention in India, the penetration of E2Ws has not climbed significantly. We produced this chart, arguing that the penetration has ranged between 5-7% most months since 2023.
Then the Indian government cut the tax rates on ICE two-wheelers, and the price delta between E2Ws and ICE 2Ws increased even further. Notably, the government could not cut tax rates on E2Ws as they are already at a much lower tax rate.
The result was the penetration levels falling even more. This chart was the result.
However, a lot is happening in India. Notably, Ultraviolette, a performance electric brand out of Bangalore, managed to raise USD 45 million in its Series E. This is important as the quality of investors – TDK Ventures, Lingotto, Zoho – is high. The round allows Ultraviolette to continue building its story of creating a tech-driven, performance electric brand. The brand’s new launch, the X47 crossover motorcycle, is more practical and has been received well as Ultraviolette’s network expansion drives a much-needed improvement in sales. That improvement in scale is needed as this is what the unit sales look like for Ultraviolette.
This was also the year when Honda formally entered emerging E2W markets across the globe. We had been speculating and analysing how things would pan out for the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer. While it launched the CUV e: in Europe, Indonesia, and Vietnam, it had the Activa e: in India. Also in India was the QC1, a different scooter with a fixed battery.
Most of the plans for India hovered around rolling out an extensive swapping network, which at this time is limited to three cities only. InsightEV pointed out that this may not be a great idea for now. Sales have been tepid, and we did look at what Honda needs to do to course-correct in the Indian market. As a context, this is what Honda’s retail sales looked like.
This was also the year when Ola lost its sales momentum completely as it was plagued by quality problems and faced a customer backlash. Its financials, already bad, turned worse, and then sank even further. Early in the year, we caught Ola Electric making false claims about technology by misrepresenting industry-acknowledged terms like brake-by-wire and ABS.
Towards the end of the year, it was clear that Ola would need to ‘better deploy capital’ to continue to be relevant. In November, Ola was also plagued by a scandal that it poached a researcher and stole cell manufacturing-related trade secrets from LG. InsightEV took a pragmatic view and pointed out that this was unlikely.
Meanwhile, Ola explained in its financial results that it is focusing on improving margins and not on absolute sales. This was a contrast to the approach Niu and Livewire have taken. While Niu’s approach seems to be working, it’s too early to comment on Ola or Livewire.
We closed the year with interviews with two bright Indian startups, both of which are redefining form factors, exploring what is possible with electric mobility. Speedloop Auto has developed the Croc E3W for delivery purposes. It’s a nifty machine that promises better speed and maneuverability than traditional three-wheelers and more carrying space than a two-wheeler.
Meanwhile, BeiGo is a tilting three-wheeler that solves the same problem but in a different way.
Brazil Starts to Get Some Traction
Over in Brazil, electric mobility is just about emerging now. We did a series on the country, talking to Vammo, recognising them as one of the pioneers in battery swapping in São Paulo. This was before Vammo raised USD 45 million from a clutch of investors, including EIF.
The other industry participant we spoke to was Mileto, a motorcycle deployer that believes in fixed batteries and not swapping.
The other important discussion was with YvY Capital, a fund that wants to invest in pushing electric mobility in Brazil.
Gogoro does not have a silver Lining for now
Gogoro was once the poster boy of electric mobility. Now it is going through its own version of the valley of death, or whatever they call it in Taiwan. It remains predominantly Taiwanese, a geography plagued by stagnant/declining population, low fertility, and stagnant two-wheeler sales. This is what Taiwan’s two-wheeler sales look like.
Our successive reports on Gogoro’s quarterly financials revealed a picture increasingly getting depressing, even though the last quarter did reveal some bright sparks.
Taiwan’s demography problems are exactly what plagues Europe as well, with local manufacturing dying and electric mobility increasingly dependent on Chinese imports.
It’s Not a Fair Game
Early in the year, we looked at how private investments have flown into the sector. It looks like most money has been cornered by selective startups, many of them now doing well. At one end, it deprives everyone else of capital. On the other side, investors, singed by Ola, Gogoro, Zero, and many more, would be cautious in writing new checks. In a way, investors have failed the industry.
What did we miss?
Arguably, we did not visit the ASEAN region well. This is what we aim to rectify this year as we indulge in deep dives on Indonesia and Vietnam. From a distance, Indonesia looks confusing, refusing to start, even though the two-wheeler population is huge and the potential is immense. Meanwhile, Vietnam is driving regulations to propel E2Ws, and we rate it as one of the best E2W markets for the near future.
How did we perform?
This was also InsightEV’s first full year of covering the industry. We close the year with a little more than 11,000 readers of the VoltShift newsletter. This is how our readership distribution looks like.
This was also the year when we published our first syndicated research study. We went through 74 cities across the world to understand how more than 31 million delivery riders are going to change what they ride. What do they ride today, whom do they deliver for, and who owns the vehicle? We went through it all to answer one important question for the industry and investors: “How Many Electric Motorcycles Can You Sell?” The report is available to purchase here.
In writing the report, we defined two metrics – the Two Wheeler Affordability Ratio (TWAR) and the Fuel Affordability Ratio (FAR). Together, the metrics are a good measure of how ‘electrifiable’ a country’s two-wheeler market is.
