With pollution being a serious issue in India, the government is keen on adopting electric vehicle use which will help the country recover its clean air.
Renault has just made an announcement in India this week Wednesday saying that it will bring an electric vehicle (EV) into India by 2022 but wants the government to aggressively develop ecosystem it launches this new EV in the country.
Stating that India is still not equipped with the ecosystem for EVs, Renault India Operations Country CEO and MD Venkatram Mamillapalle said launching EVs now and “having the cars in the garages makes no sense”.
He added, “We are venturing into the EV space. You will definitely see something coming up by 2022, but before I say that we want to enter into the EV segment, the most important thing is the ecosystem.”
“We are venturing into EV space. You will definitely see something coming up by 2022, but before I say that we want to enter into the EV segment, the most important thing is the ecosystem,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
There has been a lot of debate on future of electric mobility in India with government think tank Niti Aayog pushing for it.
Currently, Tata Motors offers its Tigor EV, while Mahindra & Mahindra has Verito electric sedan in the mass segment in India.
Recently, South Korean auto major Hyundai has introduced its fully electric SUV Kona, while MG Motors is also lining up five-seater pure electric SUV EZS to launch later this year.
German luxury car maker Audi had unveiled its e-tron EV SUV in India with plans to launch by the last quarter of 2019, while BMW is also studying the feasibility of launching its i3 electric car in India.
To date the full electric vehicles selling in India is just two models and they both comes from Indian car brand Mahindra. They are the Mahindra e2o Plus and Mahindra e-Verito.
There are six hybrid cars available in India – Toyota Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid, BMW i8, Mahindra Scorpio MicroHybrid, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz Diesel SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki), and Maruti Suzuki Ertiga Diesel SHVS.