Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday said India’s electric vehicles dream is not far from realisation but it needs steps like priority financing and duty reduction on certain parts to push e-mobility in the country. The company, which sells various electric models like e-Verito and e2O, said that with more manufacturers like Tata, Hyundai, MG Motors and Maruti Suzuki coming in the segment, there will be more acceptance of electric vehicles.
While stating that the government has done its bit to help e-mobility, the company said it was time for manufacturers to work towards reducing EV prices in order to make it viable for personal usage even as new business models in the shared mobility space proving it to be a sound proposition.
“Government has done what needs to be done... Electric vehicle dream is now not very far and with many players coming in, Tatas have announced their vehicles, Hyundai have launched their Kona, MG has announced their EV and Maruti has talked about its EV as well, with that we will see more and more EVs coming in,” Mahindra & Mahindra Managing Director Pawan Goenka told reporters here. This certainly will make it more acceptable when we see many more products on the road for public to start using EVs, he added.
Goenka further said it was now up to the companies to take it forward in order to make e-mobility affordable. “OEMs need to reduce prices of electric vehicles by 8-10%. Commenting specifically on Mahindra, he said the company would like to reduce the price of e-Verito to around Rs 11 lakh from Rs 12 lakh currently. “To achieve that, we are focussing on localisation and also with cell prices going down, it should help. Right now, there is 5% duty on import of cells, if that can be reduced then there can be a reduction of at least Rs 20,000 in vehicle price,” he said.
He said that one of the major hurdles was in financing as banks and non-banking financial companies were reluctant to give loans as they were not sure about the resale value of EVs.