PM Modi Positions EVs As Key To India's Energy Independence & Clean Air Goals | CNBC TV18

Añadido: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Move on, let's talk about autos. Amid the ongoing war in West Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need for energy conservation, great adoption of electric vehicles as part of a wider push towards economic resilience and sustainability. We're now joined by Lakshmi Ram Kumar Subaraj, the director of sales at GSW MG Motors as well as Vinke Gulati, the director of United Automobiles who joins us on the show.

[00:00:27]Good morning, gentlemen. Thanks a lot for joining in. Uh Mr. Subaraj, let me come across to you first. How are y'all adopting yourselves as a business? You know, in terms of this entire EV push, percentage of the mix, how do you see that moving? And in terms of capacity utilization as well for the EV part of the business, how's it uh how is it developing?

[00:00:48]>> I think uh the first four months of the year have been very good for the EV uh portfolio. And uh if you look at our product range, prime chunk of our volumes come from the EV uh products and we've seen at least for JSWMG, we've seen almost 13% year-over-year growth between 25 and 26 and we see that continue. So what we also see is that the call by the honorable prime minister, we would expect that customers would veer towards uh more conscious buying. uh they would look at EV as a very clear option uh because it saves on cost. It saves on uh the environment as well. It keeps the environment clean and also many of the bugs with related to EV buying which is EV infrastructure and uh EV resale value. We are addressing many of those concerns. So uh we believe some of the uh uh strategic uh changes that we have done to make uh buying easier for customers uh we expect that the shift to happen much more strongly than what it has happened in the first four months of the year.

[00:01:51]>> All right. Uh you know sir we'll get to that in just a bit. I want to understand your plans as well and how do you see penetration increase but what about memory chips? any kind of supply side challenges you've seen the ongoing uh you know war in West Asia that's made logistical issues quite difficult. Uh are you facing any of those and if you could tell us in terms of supply side are there challenges?

[00:02:13]>> Uh uh there aren't any challenges right now. Uh but only time will answer in terms of how the uh geopolitical situation shapes up. uh but right now we are uh uh keeping our supply chains intact and we are having our uh vehicles uh uh come out uh to meet the demand for our customers. So we are not seeing any headwinds right now.

[00:02:33]>> All right. What about some batteries?

[00:02:35]Could you tell us about uh you know the the procurement of batteries for your company?

[00:02:42]Where where do you all get it from? And are there any challenges on that front?

[00:02:45]Uh localization is something >> we're not seeing any challenges right now. We're not seeing any challenges right now. As I said, uh we'll have to wait and watch how the headwinds happen, but right now we are not seeing any challenges on batteries.

[00:02:57]>> Got it. Okay. Um Mr. Golati, let me get you into the conversation as well. What do you make of penetration here in India? You know, there's a lot of hope out there. One problem is there is, you know, a lot of this EV penetration is dependent on subsidy and support from state as well as central governments. Uh so give us uh your analysis of the same.

[00:03:18]So thanks for having me and uh frankly we are sitting at an inflection point where uh this diversity is helping us to improve more EVA adaption like you heard sir the first four months have been good and the current fuel I not say crisis but the kind of situation we are in where our prime minister had to come online and say that we should be energy efficient that will help the EV adoption more fast and as of today if we see there are lot of all of the OEMs have an EV option which wasn't there around 2 years or 3 years back and uh companies like MG Mahindra and Tata are really going out and slowly and steadily what we are seeing today when the customer walks in in any showroom he inquires about EV which wasn't happening before and that is helping us converting them to from ice to EV I'm not saying ICE is gone ice will still exist but there are a lot of customers who want to be seen as energy saving or uh want an EV for economical reasons also and because see today it it helps the environment also it helps the economy also it helps our uh import budgets also I feel this is the best situation today in for improving the EV adoption and all the companies are working towards it and at the dealerships also the customers are supporting this move which is happening because now if you see all the EV vehicles they are more good-looking than or equally good-looking than their ICE counterparts and most of them have better features than ICE counterparts.

[00:04:56]So that is helping us improve the uh EV adoption or the ratio month by month and the sales is growing.

[00:05:05]>> Okay. All right. Uh got that and now Mr. Subaraj if I can come back to you and good to see both of you gentlemen Prashant here you know and this is a as Venkeesh said right this is a inflection point if Mr. Subaraj you were on a committee right to advise uh I don't know if maybe you are on a committee to advise the government and what needs to be done right uh what would be one or two things which you will say which really uh puts us over the line with regards to that inflection point that winkh was talking to us about what what what needs to be done uh because I mean you know the government's doing uh a lot of stuff on on a variety of sectors uh over the last many years with regards to localization ation and things like that right with regards to EV apart from what's already there is there is there is there a missing link is there a missing piece more thrust and what would that area be >> so I think uh there are many aspects uh which are which where we are seeing a lot of changes happen uh number one being the uh EV infrastructure the charging infrastructure uh like a few years back uh and today if you compare two years back and and today the charging infrastructure has changed significantly and uh And which is also showing in the terms of ED EV adoption year-over-year. Last year it was two and a half% the year before last it was around 2 and a half% and last year it was veering towards 5% adoption of the uh EVs as a percentage of the total uh uh uh car industry and this year we already seeing a growth year-over-year between last year and this year. So I think the uh environment is changing very fast and the government is doing the uh right things in place and uh and uh so the customers are looking at that and they're wanting to make uh EV as an option uh in their own uh purchasing criteria as well. And when you look at JSWNG, uh the other big bug was the resale value of EVs. And we are the only ones who are offering a close to a 5-year buyback option. Uh which is which which sort of clears the uh uh the uh entry barrier for moving into an EV for a customer. So uh we see that there are a lot of changes happening and uh we believe that once the changes and customers are seeing those changes which is making them veer towards the uh EV buying option >> so so so faster roll out of charging in perhaps right I mean the only thing and and and maybe on on uh resales as you said which you are offering and that's an that's an interesting uh offer from from MG's side uh yeah no absolutely Okay. And and that 5% number sir that is 5% of incremental sales or EVs not the not that's the that's the flow number or is it the total stock >> that's the adoption of the total PV industry percentage adoption of >> which means out of 100 vehicles five are EVs and this will it'll be higher this year >> it'll be high >> uh okay got it now in terms of the other one from a consumer point of view was all this range anxiety right uh you keep hearing uh technology ology out of China, BYD and others and you know just incredible numbers with regards to how much how much a electric car can run on a single charge and things like that.

[00:08:22]What's the where are we at sir just as a at a high level I mean the highest sort of capacity battery here which is off on offer and what is available there.

[00:08:34]>> Uh I would say that the range is improving year over year. I wouldn't want to get to the numbers uh because uh uh each each uh uh manufacturer has got its own range. uh so I would say that the range is getting better and better and uh that is giving more confidence to the customers because as and when the range gets uh better the anxiety for the customer goes down to that extent and that coupled with the uh EV infrastructure also going up uh it sort of eases out uh the uh the option and the uh the the anxiety that the customer might might have when he has to travel long range. uh but customers sees the benefits of uh using an EV in terms of operational economics and all that over a five six year period. So that is proven uh but it's only the uh the anxiety towards range which is inhibiting customers and that uh I think uh uh it's getting it's changing uh year-over-year which is enabling faster adoption and a better uh confidence of customers uh towards the EB uh as an option compared to the ice push.

[00:09:42]>> Okay. All right Mr. Goli let me come across to you. Uh what about Delhi's compulsory EV adoption policy? Uh you know how do you see adoption getting uh you know how do you see implementation actually of this? Uh your quick comment on that. See obviously on the EV front uh the Deli adoption policy is awesome and uh I feel uh not talking on what's good or what bad but seeing the kind of AQIV R and Delhi this is the need of the R no doubt it's it's in a staggered uh adoption whereas it's still two years for two wheelers to be shifted to EV and there are there are resistance to it because seeing that all the 100% because we do a lot of two wheelers in Delhi the numbers are huge and that is not equivalent to the manufacturing capacity even today what all the OEMs put together have it. So there are some still uh gaps in between which they are working on. But the way the Delhi government is working on the EV, I am confident that uh uh the EV adoption rate as compared to India will be the best in Delhi and as of today they are one of the tops also and this will help the current AQI and this will also uh give the push needed for the manufacturers to increase their capacity because if if Delhi is pure EV from 1 January 28 to two wheelers and the kind of subsidy and the uh RTO RTO is already free road tax today but the the the kind of subsidy they are willing to offer will obviously push OEMs to pull give more vehicles to Delhi which means they have to increase their production so all in all India's adaption will also improve no doubt Delhi will be in a very high rate and this can become a a pilot for all the metros where or all the places where these uh environment issues are there where the issue of this is not being addressed for so many years. I feel that is a good thing but it is staggered and we'll have to see how it comes through.

[00:11:49]>> Okay. All right gentlemen. Mrs. Subaraj, final question before we let you go. Uh not yet listed but how far do we how long do we have to wait before we see the company getting listed?

[00:12:02]the I mean we'll have to uh I mean no sooner that information is available we'll come back to you and we'll talk to you about it. So right now I would uh >> but no plans as of now.

[00:12:12]>> I would want to avoid that question. We will come back to you whenever the time is right uh >> whenever the time is right.

[00:12:18]>> Okay. We look forward to having chats like these and maybe a probable listing as well in the days to come. Thanks for joining and thanks to you as well Mr. Gulati. Interesting conversation as always. We catch up soon.