Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), the second-largest carmaker in India, said the electric car (e-car) market is expected to hit an inflection point in 2025 in India and the South Korean car maker has planned a clear roadmap to launch more products in the battery-electric car segment, going forward.

The company said the pace of EV adoption in India is actually faster than what it had earlier anticipated.

In 2023, the country’s total volumes of electric passenger vehicles (including e-cars and eSUVs) are estimated at about 82,000 units, up from 38,300 in 2022, according to the Vahan Dashboard.

“Of course, the penetration is still low at 2-2.5 per cent. What is more important is not the volumes, but the direction the market signals,” Tarun Garg, Chief Operating Officer, HMIL, told businessline during a discussion.

Localisation push

The company believes that mass adoption of e-cars will gather pace from 2025, supported by localisation, a drop in the prices of vehicles and the entry of several players with new products.

“Actually, not just Hyundai, but other players have also announced their electric product launch plans since the government policies are also favoured more towards EVs,” said Garg.

Hyundai’s internal estimates indicated that EVs will form 20-22 per cent of the PV market by 2030. In 2023, the battery-powered vehicles’ share was about 2.5 per cent and 2025 could be the year of trajectory change as the EV percentage will start moving northwards.

He pointed out that the market is addressed by only limited players now. Since more major players have announced their plans for the launch of their battery-powered cars, the industry will see a major transformation from 2025, he added.

Hyundai is already working on creating all business fundamentals for the upcoming EV launches. The company is investing in localising battery packs and other components. It has planned an outlay of ₹700 crore for the same.

“Localisation of battery pack by Hyundai is a very significant step towards bringing the costs down to launch a range of EVs with different body types and price points,” he said.

Current barriers

Discussing the current barriers to EV adoption, Garg pointed out that price is still a big barrier even as the ecosystem is evolving. “The price of e-cars is 40-60 per cent more than petrol or diesel cars. The price can come down with the localisation of batteries. In case of range anxiety, now the e-cars come with a higher range of 300 km or more than the earlier levels of 100-150 km,” he said.

For the charging infrastructure, more partnerships are being forged. “Overall, we have more reasons to be optimistic about EVs. The first set of buyers of e-cars is a little adventurous or conscious of other things such as the environment. The next buyers are little conservative ones, who may be waiting for the prices to come down and charging infra to improve. But these buyers are slowly coming in. I am hopeful that EVs will see a big take-off from 2025 — FY26,” he added.

Hyundai currently sells two EVs – Kona Electric and Ioniq 5, and it sold about 1,600 units of its e-SUVs in 2023, up from 600-plus units in 2022.

HMIL has a dedicated battery-electric Platform E-GMP (Electric Global Modular Platform) for India. Ioniq 5 was the first model to feature this platform.

Related Topics