In 2016, Union Minister Piyush Goyal made a prediction where he said that by 2030, all cars being sold in India will be electric vehicles. And, witnessing the growth since, his belief has only been made stronger. He has once confirmed that in the next seven years, every new vehicle sold in India will be an electric vehicle.
According to Shashank Srivastava, executive director, Maruti Suzuki, by 2030, the penetration of EVs for passenger vehicles in India will be around 20 percent. For Maruti Suzuki and their own powertrain, by 2030 it’ll be 15 percent EV, 25 percent strong hybrids and 60 percent to be a mix of ethanol blended fuel, CNG and biogas.
There are a couple of challenges when selling an electric future to Indians. Srivastava said that the cost of acquisition needs to be reasonable. Currently this cost is 1.6 times that of ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. These costs have to be brought down and one solution to this is battery localisation. Secondly, range anxiety which can be solved by charging infrastructure being built.
It is often said that Maruti Suzuki is a market leader but when it comes to EVs, they haven’t really entered the game yet. Srivastava believes that on an optics term it doesn’t seem so at the moment. However, between optics and consumer convenience, all 100 times out of 100, the company will choose consumer convenience over optics, said Srivastava. While other manufactures sell one electric vehicle, selling an electric future while having a large portfolio of ICE vehicles in stow, that is not Maruti Suzuki’s narrative and play.