From GM to Ford, VW and Honda, global carmakers have been making commitments to shift the entire fleet to electric vehicles, but in India, after an initial policy push, an aggressive EV plan has come to a near standstill
Only a few car manufacturers in India are giving the EV segment a push, with most others waiting it out to see how the category will evolve
Image: Jens Schlueter / AFP
A massive shift is underway across the global automotive industry. And India’s automobile industry just doesn’t seem to be pressing the pedal fast enough.
Over the past few months, everyone from General Motors to Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen and Honda have been making commitments to shift their entire fleet to electric vehicles (EV) over the next few decades. “For General Motors, our most significant carbon impact comes from tailpipe emissions of the vehicles that we sell—in our case, it’s 75 percent,” Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, wrote on LinkedIn on January 28. “That is why it is so important that we accelerate towards a future in which every vehicle we sell is a zero-emissions vehicle.”
The company now plans to sell only those vehicles that have zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a significant move by one of the world’s largest automakers. In April, Japanese automaker Honda made it clear that the company intends to only sell EVs and fuel cell vehicles by 2040. In Europe, American automaker Ford said it will only be offering electric cars from 2030. By 2025, Volkswagen wants to build and sell up to 3 million all-electric cars per year with over 50 purely electric-powered vehicles.
India, however, doesn’t seem to be in any rush. While the government had set a deadline initially, and later backtracked on that commitment of selling only EVs by 2030, only a handful of car manufacturers are currently giving the electric vehicle segment a much-needed push, with the others waiting it out to see how the category will evolve. Between Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, who control over 65 percent of the Indian automobile market, dreams of an aggressive electric vehicle plan has come to a near standstill.
(This story appears in the 04 June, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)