Hyundai Motor has been working on developing a small electric car for the Indian market.
This is in addition to plans of rolling out more premium models in the country starting this year, an executive revealed.
Tarun Garg, Director, Sales, marketing and service, Hyundai India, said that the company has been working actively to resolve the charging infrastructure issues while also enhancing the sales network and manufacturing in the country.
“We have to look at as much localization as possible,” Garg said, implying that it will help in slashing the manufacturing costs that will enable the company to make the car affordable.
Making no comments on when the OEM is planning to launch its small electric car in India, Hyundai Garg said that the timing must be right “so we can bring it at the right price”.
“The ecosystem should be ready, we should have enough charging,” he added.
“Until its small EV hits the roads, Hyundai will launch premium models starting with its Ioniq 5 electric crossover this year and will gradually move down the price chain”, Garg said.
“When it was about cars with IC-engines, we had this bottoms-up approach. In electric, we are trying the top-down approach,” he said, adding that the enhancement in the EV charging infrastructure is crucial for the EV ecosystem to succeed in the country.
Hyundai has plans to expand its EV lineup in India.
The carmaker has already announced plans to roll out six battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2028, as the share of electric vehicles on Indian roads continues to surge robustly in the last quarter.
The small, affordable electric car could be a great boost to India’s desire of achieving 30 percent EV sales penetration for private cars by 2030.
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