There are constraints to EV adoption in India

INTERVIEW Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, Maruti Suzuki

- K. SUNIL THOMAS

Q/Is the worst over for the Indian auto industry?

A/The Covid situation seems to have receded into the background, though in the past few months we have seen spikes in some countries. It is not over and we have to closely monitor the situation. The supply chain situation with the lockdown during Covid seem to be not there [any longer]. So in that sense, there is an improvement.

On the semiconductor situation, the nadir was in August 2021 when we could only produce 40 per cent of our planned production. But now it is at 94-95 per cent. The thing is that 95 per cent was achieved last April, but it has not changed beyond that. So we still have a semiconductor issue in the industry, especially for specific chips. This situation is likely to continue for some more time.

On the sales front, 2021-22 was a slight improvement over 2020-21; there was a 13 per cent growth. And the current financial year has been very good as far as volumes are concerned. The volume expected this year is 3.8 million, which is the highest ever; the previous highest was 3.37 million in 2018-19.