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Driving to the future

By Niranjan Mudholkar,

Added 01 December 2017

We have garnered valuable experience with Indian customers and conditions which gives us the confidence that EVs are definitely going to be the future of mobility, says Mahesh Babu, CEO – Mahindra Electric

How does it feel to be in your position given the excitement and buzz around the electric vehicles segment both globally as well as in our country?
In 2010, propelled by a vision of an electric future for mobility, M&M invested in EVs. We are very happy that this belief is now being reinforced. The world is not just acknowledging, but also appreciating the need for all of us to switch to a greener form of mobility. Globally the last few years have been very encouraging mfor EVs. Last September in fact saw the highest ever sales of EVs across the world. Several countries, including India, have declared their intention to go all electric within the next two decades, and in line with this, multiple OEMs are now working aggressively on their EV plans.
Being positioned as the pioneer of EV industry in one of the world's fastest growing economies puts us right in the middle of all the excitement. You can feel the energy flow through our teams, the enthusiasm is almost contagious.
Over the last seven years, we have garnered valuable experience with Indian customers and conditions which gives us the confidence that EVs are definitely going to be the future of mobility. In fact, recently our e2o and e2o-Plus customers together covered over 50 million electric kilometers, the first of its kind for the country. That's as good as going around the world over 1000 times.
Along with the experience, we have had the opportunity to work really closely with our customers. We follow a tight feedback loop which helps us create, test, learn and refine very quickly; and deliver products and solutions which best suit the situation. But this is just a beginning, India has now embarked on a journey that the world took on a few years ago. Being the pioneers of the Indian EV industry, what makes it even more special for us is that we are a part of a homegrown auto-giant, Mahindra & Mahindra. It reinforces our belief that Indian EVs are here to make a mark in the global economy!

Do you see this excitement translating into sales numbers and revenue growth for the industry in general and Mahindra Electric in particular?
India as an economy is at very nascent stages as far as EVs as concerned. The total contribution of electric vehicles to total vehicle sales, at the moment is a measly single digit. Within the EVs sold in India, the market is dominated by electric two wheelers. Having said that, the healthy signs of growth that the sector is showing, cannot be ignored. The CAGR of the industry (across all types of electric vehicles) is at ~58 percent, a very healthy indicator of growing adoption of EVs. The four-wheeler segment in particular has been our focus till now and has seen a CAGR of ~41 percent.

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