EV: Tech Clash

IT’S A BATTLE OF TECHNOLOGIES. CURTAILING TAILPIPE EMISSIONS VIA EVs MAY NOT NECESSARILY BE THE ONLY WAY. SOME CARMAKERS ARE OPTING FOR DIFFERENT POWERTRAINS. WHO WILL WIN THE CONSUMER MANDATE?

- Rishi Kant

GOING ELECTRIC

1 % EVs share of India’s passenger vehicle market

17,802 Electric passenger vehicles sold in FY22, against 4,984 units in FY21

2,826 Public charging stations currently operational

SOURCE: VAHAN 4.0; BUREAU OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY; FADA

FROM THE corner of their eye, Rajeev Chaba and his team are keeping a tab on the time. The president and MD of MG Motor India is flying out to Vadodara to the company’s manufacturing facility in Halol —which it inherited from the now-defunct India operations of General Motors. The automaker is looking to bolster production, and according to Chaba, the project should be finished within the next two months. “We inherited a manufacturing capacity of 75,000 units annually, we are looking to scale it up to 120,000,” he adds.

The iconic British brand — now under Chinese owners — is a distant second in India’s increasing, albeit still fledgling, market for electric passenger vehicles. According to data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), MG sold 2,045 electric passenger vehicles in FY22 — an 11.5% market share — against 22.4% in FY21. Homegrown Tata Motors has virtually monopolised the nascent yet burgeoning market — retailing 15,198 vehicles in the same period, a market share of 85.4%.