This year's edition, three years lost to the pandemic and scheduling, wore a distinctive shade of green, and, as would befit an era of technology shift from internal combustion engines to electric motors, had a clutch of high-technology exhibits and concepts. But the excitement of the expo's heyday was missing.
Seeking to enhance green mobility, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 'PM-eBus Sewa' scheme under which 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Ola Electric, India's largest maker of electric scooters, launched its most affordable ride on Tuesday, in an attempt to woo more customers and expand its electric two-wheeler lineup.
The EV industry is at an inflection point and batteries will play a critical role ahead -- batteries and related components typically constitute 35-45 per cent of an EV's costs.
The question is: Will the company have a strong balance sheet to support this massive investment plan?
Auto Expo 2023 may not trigger a fresh rally in automobile stocks, say analysts, as this year's edition lacks participation from major listed players. It is also owing to the focus on electric vehicles (EVs), a segment where four-wheelers have minuscule market share. "In the passenger vehicles (PV) segment, Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors are the only listed players.
'While we have done a few thousand kilometres in India, most of the testing and data collection and analysis has been done in the US, Japan and Europe.'
Centre mulls strategy to ensure powers given to the agencies are not misused.
According to Siam data, Indian auto companies sold 982,456 units of utility vehicles in the first half of FY23, a 50.29 per cent growth over the corresponding period last year.
Although it has not announced the price bookings, sources say it could be in thousands.
India will have 30 per cent of its two-wheeler industry turning electric by 2030 as new manufacturers lead the shift, said a report on Monday. Passenger vehicles will be 15 per cent electric and the three-wheeler segment 75 per cent electric by 2030, said the report by BNP Paribas called 'India Autos-Electric vehicles: Minutes to midnight'. "We see FY22 as the year of inflection for the two-wheeler EV industry, with an accelerated EV adoption helped by incentives, wider availability, model launches, rise in crude prices and improved general awareness. We see 30 per cent of the 2W industry turning electric by 2030; the pace of incentive withdrawal presents an upside/downside risk," the report (India Autos - Electric vehicles: Minutes to midnight) said.
Fiscal deficit would be brought down to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. She also said that tax receipts for the next fiscal are budgeted at Rs 23.3 lakh crore and states would be allowed 3.5 per cent of GDP as fiscal deficit. To finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, net market borrowing from dated securities is estimated at Rs 11.8 lakh crore, Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget for 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha.
The Tata group is planning to invest $90 billion in new industries such as mobile components plant, semiconductor, electric vehicles, batteries, renewables energy and e-commerce by 2027. The Tata group's investment in India is far higher than the $75-billion investments planned by Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries and $55-billion investment planned by the Adani group in the next five years in the country, the Economist reported recently. The investment by the Tata group is a shift in its strategy to focus more in the home markets instead of international markets where the group lost money.
Commodity investments can help you diversify your portfolio in asset classes other than equity and debt, says Dwaipayan Bose.
Maruti Suzuki India will launch electric vehicles in the country only after 2025 as demand for such vehicles at the moment is less and it would like to sell around 10,000 units a month whenever it enters the electric mobility space, company chairman RC Bhargava said on Wednesday. Addressing a virtual conference on the company's second quarter earnings, he said under the current circumstances a lot of things in the EV ecosystem such as batteries, charging infrastructure and electric supply are done by other parties and therefore the costing is not in the hands of the company. Also with fuel prices going up, car market leader Maruti Suzuki India is intensifying its focus on more CNG offerings of its models.
Tata Motors on Wednesday unveiled Tigor EV, its second electric model in the personal mobility space after Nexon EV. The auto major has tasted success with Nexon EV, which currently commands about 70 per cent market share in the domestic electric vehicle segment. The Tigor EV comes powered by the company's high voltage electric architecture - Ziptron - and has been developed based on three pillars of technology, comfort and safety.
Electric vehicle market is likely to attract investments of Rs 94,000 crore over the next five years and is expected to generate business opportunities in the real estate sector, according to a joint report by Colliers India and Indospace. The report 'Electric Mobility in Full Gear' mentioned that the electric vehicle (EV) industry in India is currently at a nascent stage but it is likely to grow, backed by government initiatives and a move towards recognising climate change. "India is taking a step towards sustainability and has vowed to cut its carbon emissions. "At the recently concluded CoP26 summit, India pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. "In India, the transport sector is currently the third-largest emitter of CO2. This is leading to increased thrust on EVs in India," it said.
CURVV, currently in its production-ready avatar, will first be made available as an electric vehicle, to be followed by its internal combustion engine counterpart.
'I want us not to underestimate Indian voters. They can tell good work from bad.'
Vader is the first electric bike in India to offer 7-inch Android display.
'Our expectations are that we will be able to double our market share from 14-15 per cent currently to around 30 per cent by the end of the financial year.'
Making it clear that relaxations will not be provided to US-based electric vehicles major Tesla unless it participates in manufacturing activities in India, Union Minister Krishan Pal Gurjar on Tuesday said there cannot be a situation where the market is India but jobs are created in China. The minister of state for heavy industries also told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that the company is yet to apply for schemes as per the government's policy. Last year, the Elon Musk-led company sought a reduction in import duties on electric vehicles (EVs) in India but the Ministry of Heavy Industries asked the firm to start manufacturing its iconic EVs in the country before any tax concessions can be considered.
After securing a euro 150 million Credit line for solar energy finance from a German financial institution, State Bank of India is in talks with european Investment Bank for about euro 200 million to fund climate finance. Recently the country's largest lender obtained euro 150 million in green funding from German government-owned KFW on soft terms and a long repayment period. SBI will use funds to finance solar energy projects.
Electric two-wheelers have zipped past the half-a-million registration mark and achieved a market penetration of 4 per cent at the fag end of Calendar 2022, according to data released by VAHAN. According to VAHAN data for the year (until December 27), 560,000 two-wheelers were registered in the country, up a staggering fourfold over 2021, when only 136,000 were registered, and when electric vehicle penetration was a mere 1.05 per cent. The total number of two-wheelers (internal combustion engine, or ICE, and electric) registered so far in 2022 stands at 14.5 million, up only 12.7 per cent over the previous calendar year.
A day after he was ruthlessly removed from the Bharatiya Janata Party Parliamentary Board, Nitin Gadkari -- arguably, the top performer in the Narendra Modi Cabinet and a former BJP president -- was in Mumbai, launching one of his pet projects: Electric public transport buses for the city.
China's covid crisis could provoke a raw material crunch for India's EV industry later this year.
The semiconductor chip supply for the electric two-wheeler industry has normalised but the prices are up by nearly 50 per cent compared to pre-pandemic period, said Eric Vas, president, Urbanite, the electric vehicle (EV) business of Bajaj Auto. "It (the supply) has improved greatly. It has pretty much normalised. The problem is the cost. "The costs remain very high. Hopefully, the costs will start correcting themselves over this fiscal year," he said in an interview with Business Standard.
By 2025, Uber projects that 25,000-30,000 cars -- or 12 to 16 per cent of vehicle additions -- would be EVs, reports Surajeet Das Gupta.
Senior Tesla executives including those from its supply chain are planning to come to India on Wednesday and Thursday for meetings with government officials, including those in the Prime Minister's Office, according to sources. Prashant R Menon, director of Tesla India, did not respond to a specific query on the meetings. Sources say that the executives are coming to see how they can expand and develop local sourcing of components from India for the Tesla car.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said he has asked US-based Tesla several times to manufacture its iconic electric vehicles in India, while assuring that all support will be provided by the government to the company. Addressing 'India Today Conclave 2021', Gadkari further said electric cars manufactured by Tata Motors are not less good than electric cars manufactured by Tesla. "I have told Tesla that don't sell electric cars in India which your company has manufactured in China.
Sales of Mercedes-Benz in the country have jumped by 36.67 per cent to 16,497 units in 2022-23 amid high demand for its top-end vehicles, according to its India MD & CEO Santosh Iyer. "This is the highest-ever sales recorded by the company in any financial year," he stated. In the luxury car segment of India, Mercedes-Benz is the market leader with about a 42 per cent share.
Ford, which had announced to quit the Indian market last year, said it was exploring the possibility of using one of its plants in India to produce electric cars for exports.
Eicher Motors is a leader in the premium motorcycle segment, where it holds market share of over 85 per cent under the Royal Enfield (RE) brand. The company's joint venture VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) with Volvo, where it holds 54.5 per cent stake, gives it a strong footing in commercial vehicles (CVs). The company had good results in FY23 and it has a strong balance sheet and good operating margins.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) does not anticipate growth in the small car segment because people continue to find these vehicles unaffordable, chairman R C Bhargava said on Wednesday. He said the market had clearly shifted towards the sport utility vehicle (SUV) segment and the company will go in the same direction. The domestic sales of utility vehicles jumped in India by 34.54 per cent to about 2 million units in FY23.
US President Joe Biden visited the Detroit Auto Show to highlight electric vehicle manufacturing in America.
Homegrown auto major Tata Motors on Tuesday said it will raise $1 billion (Rs 7,500 crore) in its passenger electric vehicle business from TPG Rise Climate at a valuation of up to $9.1 billion. Tata Motors Ltd (TML) and TPG Rise Climate, the dedicated climate investing strategy of private investment firm TPG, have entered into a binding agreement in this regard. Under the agreement, TPG Rise Climate along with its co-investor ADQ, will invest in a subsidiary of Tata Motors that will be newly incorporated, the company said in a statement.
In a fragmented electric three-wheeler market where no company has more than a 10 per cent share, leave alone a dominant presence, can Bajaj Auto storm in and become king? The company is set to launch its range of electric auto rickshaws in June and hopes to replicate its success in ICE three-wheelers where it is the undisputed market leader with a 63 per cent market share. Can it be crowned king of the electric three-wheeler market too? Overall, electric sale volumes are growing at breakneck speed.
The Indian startup ecosystem has lauded the inclusion of startups in the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration for the first time ever in the history of G20. Industry stakeholders say that the move will lead to easier access to capital, reduce regulatory hurdles, and may revive funding activity. The Declaration, through the Startup20 initiative, recognised startups as "natural engines of growth" and key to socio-economic transformation by driving innovation and creating employment.
The all-new ZS EV will be available in two variants -- Excite and Exclusive, priced at Rs 21.99 lakh and Rs 25.88 lakh, respectively. The company said it has initiated bookings for the Exclusive variant, while bookings for the Excite trim will commence from July 2022. The model comes with the largest in-segment 50.3-kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery with advanced technology, offering a 461-km certified range in a single charge.