EVs are the flavour of the year 2021. In the past 11 months, we have seen the launch of atleast 10 electric vehicles and more are in the pipeline in 2022. Due to sky rocketing fuel prices, the consumers are finally more receptive to the idea of buying an EV, even though charging infrastructure in most cities is nascent, at best. So far, the few EVs that made their way to India were either tiny hatchbacks with low charging range and performance or expensive plug-in hybrids. This year, majority of the EVs launched have been in the mid-range (between Rs 10 – 25 lakhs except for Tata Tiago EV) and across segments, including SUVs, compact SUVs and sedans. Even the government has extended its FAME-II subsidies to encourage more personal purchases of EV. It seems like EVs are now here to stay and every carmaker is jumping onto that bandwagon. Except two carmakers. Who are they? Read on to find out.
Photo Credit: Maruti Suzuki
Maruti-Suzuki is in no hurry to enter the EV race against other carmakers at this time. To their credit, they did conduct a test run of 50 Wagon R EVs. But, its own chairman R C Bhargava, has gone on record to say that the company will launch EVs in the country only after 2025. Explaining this decision at their 40th annual general meeting, Bhargava added that the current manufacturing cost of electric vehicles is not feasible enough to sell the cars in large numbers. Moreover, under the current circumstances a lot of things in the EV ecosystem like batteries, charging infrastructure and electric supply are done by other parties and therefore, the costing is not in the hands of the company.
The carmaker´s decision is also partly aided by the fact that existing sales figures of electric vehicles are not creating any impact on the sales figures of Maruti-Suzuki. For now, the company is focussing on providing CNG and hybrid options to its customers in the wake of increasing petrol prices.
Yet another company with no immediate plans to fully enter the electric vehicles race is the Japanese auto giant Toyota. To begin with, Toyota invested heavily in hybrid technology as well as hydrogen fuel cells over the years. Although India didn´t have too many hybrid cars, globally, Toyota´s hybrids like Prius and Camry were popular choices and their sales certainly did their bit in spreading greener technology. However, having bet too deeply in the hybrid game, Toyota president Akio Toyoda is now worried about how the switch to EVs will lead to loss of employment for Japanese car industry. Also, uncertain about the future of EVs 5 years ago, Toyota did not invest early enough into EVs and so, is continuing to pitch the case of hybrids. It did release the Lexus ux300e as a rival against Tesla Model 3 last year, but there has been little noise since then.
While there is a plan for the South Korean car maker to enter this field, there are no EVs in its portfolio currently. The company has a plan globally to bring in EVs and we've driven the EV6 exclusively already, but there is a slight hesitation of bringing it here given that the Indian market is yet to mature and find a strong foothold for electric cars in the country
