by Bhaswati Guha Majumder - Jun 25, 2021 09:34 AM
Officials of the company and state government signing an MoU (Twitter)
Snapshot
The US-based electric vehicle manufacturer Triton will invest Rs 2,100 crore in Telangana for the new establishment.
The project would lead to the production of over 50,000 vehicles over the first five years, and it will include semi-trucks, sedans, luxury SUVs and electronic rickshaws, says Telangana IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao.
The United States-based electric vehicle manufacturer Triton, which competes with Elon Musk s Tesla, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Telangana government to set up a manufacturing unit in Zaheerabad, which has Mahindra & Mahindra s largest tractor manufacturing facility, in Sangareddy district.
India s electric vehicles face practical, technical hurdles
NEHA MEHROTRA, Associated Press
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1of9A driver of an electric car charges his vehicle at public charging station in New Delhi, India, Thursday, April 1, 2021. India has ambitions to expand use of electric vehicles to wean itself from polluting fossil fuels, but EVs are still a rarity on its congested highways. A lack of charging stations and poor quality batteries are discouraging drivers from switching over.Neha Mehrotra/APShow MoreShow Less
2of9A driver of an e-rickshaw waits for passengers at a busy market place in New Delhi, India, Sunday, March 28, 2021. India has ambitions to expand use of electric vehicles to wean itself from polluting fossil fuels, but EVs are still a rarity on its congested highways. A lack of charging stations and poor quality batteries are discouraging drivers from switching over.Neha Mehrotra/APShow MoreShow Less
Yet, with just a reported 500 electric vehicle charging stations operational across India – when the operational necessity has been pegged at 2,600 – the true scale of the challenge before Tesla, and indeed other EV automakers, comes into view. The government has unveiled grand plans to install as many as 69,000 charging kiosks at petrol pumps across the country but given the pace at which EV infrastructure development has taken place in recent years, achieving such a goal is still some distance away.
Tesla will also come to find that the characteristics of the Indian consumer do not necessarily facilitate a full-blooded appreciation of electric vehicles. The company is likely to make its foray into India with its Model 3 and although pricing details are yet to be revealed, one can safely say that its cost will be prohibitive to the average Indian with a, reported, per capita income of Rs 5.6 lakh – almost 31 per cent lower than that of China s.