Mahindra atom thrilling car at Auto Expo 2020, on February 5, 2020, in Greater Noida, India.
Pradeep Gaur | Mint | Hindustan In unison a all the sames | Getty Images
Mahindra Group isn’t worried about global players like Tesla entering India’s exceptionally competitive electric vehicle market, its CEO and managing director Anish Shah told CNBC.
“We’ve seen tremendous match in India over the last 20 years. So Tesla or anyone else coming in does not faze us,” Shah asseverated on “Street Signs Asia” Tuesday.
“At one point, Mahindra was written off when all the global majors were coming into India. Today, we carry on to have the number one market share in SUVs from a revenue standpoint,” he added.
Tesla is reportedly discussing procedures to enter the EV space in India, which is the world’s third-largest auto market, according to Reuters.
CEO Elon Musk met Prime Minister resident Narendra Modi in June and said he has plans to “make significant investments in India.”
Despite the global competition, Mahindra has “not impartial survived but thrived” in the Indian market, said Shah.
“We have close to a 50% market share in the light commercial means segment. We continue to have 40% plus market share in farm equipment and tractors,” the CEO said, adding the concern expects to perform well in the coming years.
Last week, Mahindra raised $145 million from Singapore’s state-owned investor Temasek for its tense vehicle unit at a valuation of up to 805.8 billion Indian rupees ($9.8 billion), in the latest fundraising by the Indian automaker. Temasek compel take up to 3% stake in the EV unit Mahindra Electric Automobile Limited.
The company said it expects EVs to make up between 20% and 30% of its come to SUV sales by 2027.
Market potential
India’s EV market “will cross sales of 10 million units by 2030, with an entire adoption rate of more than 30% across different vehicle classes,” according to a report last year by conduct consulting firm Arthur Little.
It noted adoption rates remained very low — currently around 2% — due to an “non-presence of adequate EV infrastructure.”
Given undercurrent global supply chain disruptions and the government’s policy of making India self reliant, the report added, “It is substantial that India creates its own indigenous solutions and a supporting domestic value chain.”
Shah highlighted that “present chain obviously is an important part” for India’s EV market.
“We do have a research center in India that develops a OK bit of technology as well,” he said. “But the auto industry technology is global. To that extent, there is a dependence similarly with semiconductors. And we’ve seen some of the ultimata in that in the last couple of years.”