24 Tyre Asia April/May 2018
FOCUS
India on the cusp of
ev revolution
Puneet Gupta, Associate Director,
Automotive Forecasting at IHS MarkitTA News Bureau
An electric vehicle revolution is waiting to happen in
India, which has already announced phasing out of petrol
and diesel cars by 2031. But there are many issues that
need to be addressed before that can happen. In this
interview Puneet Gupta, Associate Director, Automotive
Forecasting at IHS Markit, explains the challenges in
introducing EVs. Gupta, who manages the Vehicle Sales
Forecast for India and the Asean markets and leads a
team based in Bangkok, explains in detail the Indian
EV scenario. He says that watching the excitement of
OEMs, he is confident that India may have frugal electric
technology in the next decade for indigenous cars which
may provide enormous value to the consumerBesides Mahindra &
Mahindra, how many Indian
companies are currently
getting ready for the EV
‘revolution’ following
government plans of
scrapping petrol and diesel
cars by 2031?
We see India as a twin nation – urban
India and rural India. In an optimistic
scenario we feel that urban India may
go all electric in the long term. We
need to understand that EV is the best
alternative to cut the oil bill and reduce
rising pollution. We feel the government
will come up with a mandate on EV this
year and every manufacturer will have to
have an EV in its portfolio. We feel thegovernment may take a softer approach
and start with around 3% mandatory
EV from 2020/21. Players like Mahindra
& Mahindra and Tata Motors have
already taken a lead and we can expect
a complete portfolio of cars in EV range
from a few more manufacturers. We are
already hearing that Tata is working on C
segment sedan and Ford is working on a
collaborative programme with Mahindra
for a big size SUV. Mahindra is also
developing a small electric SUV. Maruti
Suzuki is working on a small electric
car. These are some key developments.
We may hear some joint ventures with
Chinese companies, which are already
much ahead of India in the development
of electric cars.Do you think the government
target year to phase out