The captain of Mahindra & Mahindra is highly-enthusiastic about the future of electric vehicles in India. His confidence on motown’s latest buzzword stems from what he predicts is a three-phase adoption of electric vehicles across segments.
“By the end of FY19 in electric vehicles, I would like to see overall volume of about 3,000 units a month (barring electric three-wheelers) in India,” Pawan Goenka, managing director, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interaction. These volumes will likely be driven by the gradual switch to electric vehicles from the likes of Ola and Uber, he said.
Electric vehicles have started to gain a wider traction in India with automakers bagging new orders for e-cars to be used as taxis and intensifying competition for tenders of new electric three-wheelers and buses. The first steps in electric mobility adoption have been largely due to an aggressive and sustained push made by the Modi government in a bid to reduce India's dependence on crude oil imports and cut down on pollution.
Based on a three-phase adoption plan for mass scale e-mobility, electric vehicles are predicted to witness rapid acceptance over the next few years, Goenka said. He expects the electric vehicle revolution to first be adopted in commercial applications both goods-carrying and passenger vehicles segments -- before finding acceptance in the personal buyers' segment.
“I expect that the commercial application both on the load side and the passenger side will see biggest growth in electric vehicles. So, that means three-wheelers should see a large increase in volumes. Most of the three-wheelers that are being sold operate on lead-acid battery. Over the next six months, you would see several lithium-ion battery three-wheeler launches including that of M&M displayed in Auto Expo 2018,” Goenka said.
Electric buses would power the second round of growth in electrics. “There are 11 states that are issuing tenders for electric buses in both 9-metre and 12-metre categories. All the manufacturers, including Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and BYD, are getting ready for it. We have displayed our 9-metre buses Auto Expo 2018. We will participate in many of these tenders,” Goenka added. He is confident the company will be ready for volume production in under a year and can bring out electric bus pilots in phases earlier than that.
Tata Motors fully Electric Bus showcased at the Auto Expo 2018
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka are among the states that have shown interest in adopting e-mobility for mass public transport. Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland are also bidding for these tenders.
The third and the next charger for electric mobility growth will come from taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber, predicts Goenka. “The third one will be on the four-wheeler for aggregators like Ola and Uber, fleet operators like Lithium, Bhagirathi and EESL. You will see increase in volume happening there. By end of FY19, now that electric vehicles are getting traction, I would like to see, not counting three wheelers, an overall volume of about 3,000 a month for India”, added Goenka.
M&M won the order for 1,000 e-cars to be supplied to Bengaluru-based fleet operator Bhagirathi Travel Solutions valued at more than Rs 100 crore.
Many states have shown interest in electric three-wheelers for passenger transport, a segment where companies like M&M, Greaves Cotton, Lohia Auto and TVS Motors have shown keenness.
“The deepest penetration that you would see in electric vehicles will be in three-wheelers. It is very simple, because given the current incentives that we have on them the equation works out very well for the operator. We launched an electric three-wheeler just about six months ago. In last quarter we sold 1,000 of them and on four-wheelers side, we sold only about 350 or so during the quarter,” Goenka said.
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