Maruti-Suzuki has delayed the deliveries of its first electric vehicle, the eVitara, to September. Coupled with lukewarm demand for other recent electric vehicle launches, such as the Hyundai Creta electric, has sparked whispers in the automotive industry about India’s electric vehicle future.
Even if we set aside China and the US, smaller car markets such as Thailand are far ahead of India—EVs account for almost 12 per cent of new car sales there. According to Bloomberg data, it is the rapid growth of EV passenger vehicle sales in some of these countries that is truly astounding. In Brazil, sales of EVs climbed 500 per cent between 2022 and 2024; Thailand saw growth of 279 per cent, and Mexico wasn’t far behind. Australia clocked in at 145 per cent. All these countries are mature car markets.
In the last financial year, sales of electric passenger vehicles in India stood at 110,748 units, according to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ VAHAN portal. That’s an 11 per cent rise on paper—but no matter how one slices and dices the data, this forms a minuscule proportion of overall car sales in the country: just over 3 per cent. And that’s despite the noise being made by carmakers with a rash of EV launches over the past few months.
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