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Customers who enjoy the rugged experience of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) such as Scorpio or Bolero of Mahindra & Mahindra, may not be able to experience similar fun with electric SUVs.
M&M, which is known for rugged 4x4 SUVs, is planning only electric cars and crossovers as of now, Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, M&M, told BusinessLine .
“The electric vehicle game is different from the SUV game. Currently, an electric SUV range is not possible because SUVs are heavier and therefore require far more bigger batteries (and thus cost more). That is why our focus is on EVs and not so much on electric SUV. May be some (electric) crossovers, but not heavy-duty SUVs,” Goenka said. He said M&M has made significant investments in EVs, but not high-end EVs.
Goenka said the price point will be the key driver as EVs usually don’t have high performance levels in terms of speed and range.
“So our bet is on vehicles that have adequate performance and are affordable and applicable for commercial use. That doesn’t mean that private owners cannot use them. But we are not trying to right now cater a $100,000 (around ₹60 lakh) kind of vehicle; we are trying to get a $15,000 (₹9-10 lakh) kind of a vehicle,” he said.
Asked about electric two-wheelers, Goenka said the company is currently talking about only three-wheelers and buses.
“Having said all that, going forward, as a country, we must get to about 3,000 EVs a month by the end of the next financial year. Otherwise, we are only talking,” he said, adding that if Mahindra brings out around 700 electric vehicles a month, it will have one-fourth/fifth of the market.
“We have to continue to ramp up, and by 2022, we need to think about 20,000 vehicles a month,” where Mahindra again is targeting a 20-25 per cent market share.
“That is the plan, but we have to wait and see,” Goenka said, adding that EVs’ future is based on affordability, provided three things happen — charging stations are set up, no change in government incentives and changes in current constraints on selling electricity.
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