Mahindra To Develop Affordable Electric Vehicles For India — An Emissions Free Future

In a bid to battle air pollution, Mahindra will make electric cars in the Rs 8 to 10 lakh segment and has not ruled out an electric SUV either. Mahindra may develop an electric SUV with inputs from Pininfarina.

At the moment, electric vehicles are what the country needs to reduce pollution, and the government's support for carmakers is well appreciated. The issue, though, is the lack of infrastructure.

Pawan Goenka, the Managing Director of Mahindra, told PTI, "Globally, people are working on electric vehicles that are high performance, high powered and sell at a significant premium over petrol and diesel vehicles."

"The view that we have taken is the reason we want to do electric vehicles is to help clean the environment which means that it has to be mass affordable, it cannot be a niche segment."

"India has about 2,000 dollars (subsidy). There are countries which have 10,000 dollars, therefore we cannot have a very high-end vehicle because nobody will buy it and it does not even serve the purpose. What if 200 people bought it? It won't help much in controlling pollution."

"Somewhere, the cycle needs to start, and I am hoping that the next financial year will be the year of electric vehicles and a lot of demand will come in."

Speaking of electric vehicles, one of the most successful brand is Tesla, and below is an image gallery of the Model 3, that is soon expected in India.