Among the top-10 automakers selling the most passenger vehicles in India, only Tata, Mahindra & Mahindra (Mahindra), Hyundai and MG offer EVs. In view of the India passenger vehicle market's high growth potential on top of the India government's strong efforts to drive EV transition, automakers are endeavoring to increase their EV offerings while reducing costs in an attempt to boost EV sales.
India's 2021 passenger vehicle sales rebounded 22% from the 2020 level. Its vehicle ownership ratio of 50 units per 1,000 people still lags behind most parts of the world but this also means the market has tremendous room for growth. With respect to the progress on the EV transition, more than 10,000 EVs were sold in 2021 in India. Despite a 0.45% penetration, EV sales doubled in both 2020 and 2021.
Among the top-10 bestselling car brands in India, only Tata, Mahindra, Hyundai and MG offer EVs. In particular, Tata Nexon EVs represent close to 80% of the EVs sold in India thanks to government subsidies. The four automakers offer EVs in the medium price range between INR1-3 million (US$13,000-40,000) and with very limited selections so they hardly appeal to general Indian consumers. As such, mobility-as-a-service providers will be their target customers for the time being.
Chart 2: Vehicles per capita and per capita income comparison of key markets, 2020
Table 2: Sales of top-10 automakers in India and EV share (units)
Chart 3: India electric passenger vehicle sales, 2015-2021 (units)
Chart 4: India electric passenger vehicle monthly sales, 2021 (units)
Chart 5: India EV sales by key automakers, 2018-2021 (units)
Table 3: Specifications of EVs from top-4 automakers in India
Table 6: Elements to boosting India EV penetration via selections and affordability
