Mahindra to surge e-car production

Managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra, Pawan Goenka, on Monday said that the company is expected to increase the monthly production capacity of electric vehicles to 5,000 after 2019 from the present level of 400 vehicles. In the second day of the Magnetic Maharashtra Summit, Goenka revealed roadmap for the electric vehicles saying that it has already made an investment of Rs 600 crore. It has also proposed an additional investment of Rs 400 crore in Karnataka and Rs 500 crore in Maharashtra in the next four to five years.

‘’We have a manufacturing capacity of 400 electric vehicle per month, and by September,  we will increase it to 1,500, and by  Decemeber 2019, it will be increased  to 4000 vehicles per month, and then on wards to 5,000 electric vehicles per month. Our investment is planned to produce 5,000 vehciles per months’’ Goenka said, hoping that cab aggregators like Ola and Uber will switch to electric vehicles.

He said that the  demand in the country stands at 200 to 300 e-vehicles per month. “If all goes well by 2022, e-vehicles will be self sufficient and financially viable. The government subsidy will not be needed later especially due to increasing the volumes. About two lakh electric vehicles by various producers including Mahindra Group are expected by 2022, and they are  sufficient  to reduce the price,” Goenka opined. However, he observed that the government should not alter the current level of subsidy till 2022.