After Suzuki, Hyundai to introduce electric cars in India with Rs 5000 Cr investment plan

Hyundai Motor India is going to introduce its electric cars in the country, the latest entrant to India's electric vehicle bandwagon.

Ioniq, the brand under which the South Korean car maker sells electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, may be showcased at the Auto Expo in February 2018, according to a Mint report.

Ioniq is presently being sold in the US, Europe and East Asian markets. However, there is a speculation of introducing Hyundai Grand i10 and Hyundai i20 instead of Ioniq.

In the U.S, the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq costs $29,500 or almost Rs 19 lakh. If Hyundai decides to import and sell the car, costs of the vehicle would be around Rs 45 lakh due import duty structure and lack of local investment.

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“We will bring electric cars to India and will meet the timeline given by the Union government. Hyundai has the technology required for electric vehicles so we will bring them in all the segments we are present,” Rakesh Srivastava, director, sales and marketing, Hyundai Motor India, said in an interview.

He, however, declined to comment on the introduction of the Ioniq brand in India.

For Hyundai, India is now the third largest market after the US and China. Hence, the company will leave no stone unturned to maintain its volumes and most importantly maintain its profitability in India, Srivastava said.

The company is planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India by 2021. It will introduce a hatchback in the September quarter of the next fiscal, along with three refreshed versions of its existing models.

This month, Japanese automobile majors Toyota and Suzuki signed an in-principle agreement to consider a joint structure for the introduction of electric cars in India in 2020.

Under the agreement, Suzuki will manufacture electric cars for India and supply some units to Toyota with technical support from the latter. Interestingly, the EV segment in India, the fifth-largest car market, is the first area where the two companies have decided to work together after the global agreement in February.

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In the meantime, Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) floated its second tender for procuring 10,000 electric cars for the government-run entity.

Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), who sold 600 electric vehicles in first seven months of this year, is planning to soon launch two new EVs.

The Indian electric car maker recently partnered with ride-hailing firm Uber. according to the agreement, it will deliver hundreds of e2oPlus hatchback and the eVerito sedan to Uber across several cities in the country. It has also tied up with Zoomcar, a car rental firm.