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Mahindra expects EVs to take up 2-5% of Indian market
Economic Times, 17 Mar '15

Eco-friendly electric vehicles are a new concept, but have the potential to occupy about 2-5% of the Indian market in the next few years, a top official at auto major Mahindra has said, underlining the need for significant incentives to make them commercially viable.

"We remain very optimistic that electric vehicles will become a significant portion, about two-five% of the Indian automotive industry, in the next four-five years," Pawan Goenka, Executive Director and President (Automotive & Farm Equipment sectors) at Mahindra told reporters.

He said while electric vehicles may not become mainstream soon, but for them to become commercially viable for consumers there has to be a significant government incentives across the world.

Goenka said that till now there was not much inventive in India for electric vehicles but the new government has earmarked in its annual budget Rs. 750 million (US$ 12 million) for faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles in 2015-16. "I am hoping that starting in fiscal year 2016, we will start to see an uptake in the electric vehicles volumes," he said.

He said Mahindra has very high aspirations for electric vehicles, including bikes and two-wheelers and participating in Formula E, the world's first fully-electric racing series, is giving it tremendous exposure in terms of technology and brand development.

In the segment, Mahindra has invested heavily in its Reva Electric Vehicles as well as in California and Ann Harbour in the US to design and manufacture the product.

Goenka said the concept of electric vehicles is new for consumers and the off-take of volume has been slow as it takes time for them to become comfortable and used to electric vehicles. To ensure a shift in consumer preference towards electric vehicles, Goenka stressed that there is need to develop infrastructure in India for such vehicles including charging stations.

Mahindra has had to grapple with a decline in sales with the company registering a 10% decline in total sales in February. Goenka attributed the drop in tractor sales last year to a downturn in the industry.

In the automotive segment, he said the Indian market has struggled quite a bit in the last two years and a turnaround has begun to happen only now. He said Mahindra had a very good run in 2012-13 when it significantly outperformed the industry but in fiscal year 2014-15 it underperformed primarily because of a shift in consumer demand that has gone from full size SUVs to compact SUVs.

"Our products in the compacts SUV segment will begin to be launched in this calendar year and so while in the last two years we have had some loss in market share and volume, we hope that starting this year we will catch up," he said.