India can soon witness locally manufactured EV: BMW’s President
Considering the country's growing
EV
acceptance, German automaker BMW has announced that, the local manufacture of its electric cars in India is only a matter of time.According to BMW Group India President Vikram Pawah, 9% of the company's sales in the country in the first half of 2023 were made up of electric vehicles, and he anticipates that number to rise to 25% by 2025.
When asked about local manufacturing, Pawah responded, "As the volumes expand, as we did with every other product, we'll also localise EVS and manufacture them (locally)".
“It's Just a matter of time. The volumes and stability must have some inertia. Positive signals are now emerging. It's still very early...In the first six months, we only delivered 500 vehicles over four models, which is still a tiny number in that regard, but it is certainly expanding quickly,” Pawah stated.
BMW currently uses batteries from generation 5 and is developing batteries from generation 6. Therefore, we will decide when is the best moment to localise each one and which one to localise when...It will occur shortly, according to Pahwa.
The Indian EV sector, which is home to several small and major EV companies, might benefit from BMW's EV drive.
Players like Hyundai and Tata are now present in the Indian EV car industry. By 2025, Ola Electric and Toyota-backed luxury automaker Lexus hope to introduce their first electric vehicles in India.
The most recent development coincides with Tesla, which is run by Elon Musk, changing its intentions for India and planning to start making electric vehicles there.