Hyundai, which globally plans to introduce 44 environment-friendly models, including 23 full-electric models by 2025, has started work on developing an India specific mass-market electric vehicle
South Korean's automaker Hyundai on Tuesday launched its full-electric sports utility vehicle Kona in the Indian market with an introductory price of Rs 25.3 lakh, with a claim of 452 km range in one single charge.
Hyundai, which globally plans to introduce 44 environment-friendly models, including 23 full-electric models by 2025, has started work on developing an India specific mass-market electric vehicle.
"The launch of Kona electric will help change the perspective towards electric cars altogether and will be a game-changer in the Indian EV market. We are addressing range anxiety -- one of the biggest issues that consumers have in mind when buying an EV," Hyundai Motor India managing director and CEO S S Kim said.
However, buyers may wait for a month or two before booking the car as the government has already moved GST Council to lower the GST rate on electric vehicles from 12% to 5%.
The Kona electric is being assembled at Hyundai's Chennai plant and will be launched in 11 cities initially and will be expanded depending on the demand.
"Our research and development teams in Korea and Hyderabad are working together to develop a mass-market EV for the Indian market. It can take two to three years to hit the market," he said.
Hyundai says Kona electric can be charged in about six hours and have the ability to accelerate from 0-100 kmph in 9.7 seconds. Buyers will be provided with two chargers along with the car – a portable charger and an AC Wall Box charger. The portable charger can be plugged into any normal 3-Pin 15 Amp socket to charge the vehicle which can top up daily running of 50 km in less than three hours, whereas AC Wall Box charger (7.2 kW) can top up the charge within 1 hour for running 50 km.
The company is partnering with Indian Oil Corporation to set up charging infra at select fuel stations in four cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai. The company will invest in the equipment and installation of these fast chargers (CCS Type – single port), which can charge 80% of the battery capacity in 57 minutes.
The central government has been focusing on EV adoption due to environmental concerns from rising pollution levels and to reduce the dependence on oil imports, where India is the third-largest importer. In the Budget 2019-20, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced income tax rebates of up to Rs 1.5 lakh to customers on interest paid on loans to buy electric vehicles, with a total exemption benefit of Rs 2.5 lakh over the entire loan period. A customs duty exemption on lithium-ion cells, which will help lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries used in EVs, was also announced to promote its manufacturing in India.
The market share of electric cars is around 2% in China while it is around 39% in Norway, whereas the Indian market share of electric cars is a meagre 0.06%, according to available data.
Puneet Anand, senior general manager and group head (marketing), Hyundai Motor India, said, "Kona is a global model, but India is a different market. So, we are also ready to make an India specific EV product. The work for this is already on."
It will be a mass-market vehicle and will take a few years to launch. Not all customers would want 452 km range, some may want 200 km kind of range, which will enable us to bring down the cost as well. "We are doing a lot of study in big cities, small cities, rural areas to understand customer choices. Based on that, we will in very few years be coming up with a mass EV product," Anand said.
The company does not believe the current slowdown will impact the product as it is a different niche segment. "The customers of this segment are probably unaffected by the ongoing market situation and the high interest rates, etc. They are people who are CEOs may be, and already have a luxury product in their home. For them, adopting green technology is more like a status symbol," he said.
The government has already allocated Rs 10,000 crore in phase II of FAME for EVs for a period of three years starting April 1 this year. But, the personal EV is still not subsidised under FAME II.
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