Hyundai Agrees To Purchase GM India Talegaon Plant

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

The agreement covers the acquisition of land and buildings and certain machinery and manufacturing equipment at the General Motors India, Talegaon plant. The proposed acquisition is subject to the signing of a definitive asset purchase agreement, other certain conditions and receipt of approvals from government authorities and stakeholders.

Source: Economic Times    Read The Article

PSR Analysis. Hyundai is expected to expand its annual production capacity in India to some 900,000 units–760,000 units in its two existing plants and 130,000 units in the GM plant. Combined with production volume of its smaller Kia’s two plants in India, the total production capacity of Hyundai Motor Group could surpass 1 million units per year.

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Rural India May Play Vital Role in EV Adoption

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

Electric vehicles (EVs) witnessed strong growth in the Indian market in 2022, with a three-fold increase in sales as compared to the year before. Official data shows that Indians have bought 2,780,000 EVs since January 2023 at an average of more than 90,000 EVs per month. Significantly, the demand for EVs is not limited to metro cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, but is increasing in Tier-2 and Tier-3 markets as well.

Source: Financial Express    Read The Article

PSR Analysis: While the growth of EVs has been primarily focused on urban areas of India, we are seeing a significantly improved adoption of EVs in rural parts of the country. The statistics from Vahan, the national vehicle registry, reveal that sales of electric cars and 3ws from the contribution of the top 10 districts in India has dropped significantly from 55%-60% in fiscal 2021 to 25%-30% in fiscal 2022. In the 2Ws segment, the percentage has dropped from 40%-45% to 15%-20%. The noticeable gaps here are being filled up by smaller towns and rural India.  

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India EV Market Provides Opportunities and Challenges

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 5th Annual TWF (Two Wheeler Forum) took place on Feb. 21 and 22, 2024, at the India International Convention & Expo Centre in Dwarka, New Delhi. Hosted in partnership with Trak N Tell, the event spotlighted aspects of the Indian two-wheeler and three-wheeler industry, spanning both electric and internal combustion engines.

The landscape of electric vehicles (EVs) in India is undergoing a transformative shift, with the recent 2 wheeler, 3 wheeler, and EV show held in Delhi showcasing the industry’s dynamic evolution. Despite constituting less than 1% of total vehicle sales, the electric vehicle sector holds immense potential, and is projected to grow to over 5% in the years to come. Currently, the Indian roads host over 5 lakh electric 2 wheelers and a modest number of electric cars. However, the market’s growth trajectory remains subject to fluctuations, predominantly influenced by governmental incentives.

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MG Motors Plans To Make India An Export Hub

Aditya Kondejkar

MG Motor India is considering the possibility of exporting shipments from India to markets such as South Africa and the UK along with tapping other right-hand-drive markets across the globe. Despite the current semiconductor shortage, MG motors plans to prepare for a long-term vision of increasing its exports from India. The start  of the company’s South Africa operations has been delayed due to Covid-19.

MG motors has started exporting their vehicles to Nepal, and the company is preparing for the long term to make India an export hub for the neighboring markets. The carmaker has already dispatched its first batch of Hector SUVs to Nepal and plans to add Astor and ZS EV to the lineup in the Himalayan country next year.

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India Bets on Green Hydrogen

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

The electric vehicle market in India is mostly dominated by lithium-ion battery technology, which powers two-, three- and four-wheeler vehicles. But this situation comes with its own set of challenges.

For instance, each battery chemistry has a different energy density, peak power output and charging time. Hence, the industry is working on alternative green solutions, and the government of India is aggressively working on hydrogen as a fuel option.

In terms of refueling time, hydrogen has a definitive advantage over batteries. It takes just a couple of minutes for a hydrogen vehicle to be refueled, irrespective of size, compared to the hours it takes to recharge an electric vehicle.

The union cabinet approved US$ 2.4 trillion (Rs 19,744 cr) for National Green Hydrogen Mission. The mission has four components aimed at enhancing domestic production of green hydrogen and promoting the manufacturing of electrolysers — a key constituent for making green hydrogen. The initial target is to produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen annually.

Source: Business Standard    Read The Article

Along with the government, other industry stakeholders are taking significant steps to develop hydrogen fuel. Ashok Leyland (one of the largest CV makers) is working with Reliance industries on the development and supply chain of hydrogen-powered engines.

Ashok Leyland plans to install fuel-cell engines in an existing fleet of 45,000 trucks that RIL has hired to transport refined products and other marketing goods as a first stage in the strategy. Also, Adani (diversified business portfolio) and TotalEnergies (French energy and petroleum company) have entered into a partnership to jointly create the world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem.

The potential of the country towards the production of hydrogen is attractive to many companies. European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is looking to source green hydrogen from India as well as Australia and Latin America. 

“India is an amazing location with huge potential for the production of (green) hydrogen at a very exciting cost,” says Glenn Llewellyn, VP Zero-Emission Aircraft at Airbus.

In the 16th edition of the motor show Auto Expo Toyota, MG motors, Tata motors, Hyundai, and VECV,  showcased their hydrogen-powered vehicles across several segments. It’s evident that OEMs are seriously exploring the option of Hydrogen powered vehicles.   PSR

Aditya Kondejkar is Research Analyst – South Asia Operations for Power Systems Research

Impact of COVID-19 in India on Engine-driven Applications

As of today, India is relatively less impacted by COVID than other nations. Because of the very bold and unprecedented move of a complete lockdown for about 40 days, India has managed to restrict the number of positive cases to 17,000.

Ritvik Kulkarni
Ritvik Kulkarni

Considering that India is a country with a population of over 1 billion persons living in challenging on-ground conditions, it is a phenomenal effort of proactive and timely response from the government as well as restraint observed by citizens.

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Daimler India Adopts Aggressive Dealer Strategy

Daimler India, which recently set up 10 new touchpoints, plans to have at least 350 dealerships across India in the next two years as it looks to deepen market penetration.

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In September, DICV announced plans to grow its BharatBenz dealer network by 10%, exceeding 250 outlets by the end of 2020. With the opening of these new touchpoints, the company moves a step closer to cutting the distance between dealerships from 160 km to 120 km. The company is expanding strategically. The touchpoints are located on leading national and state highways, improving DICV’s golden quadrilateral coverage.

Along with increasing domestic reach, the company is focusing on the export market. Post announcement of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the company plans to invest in the country. The new investment could be used to increase the localization levels of components to avail the PLI. Furthermore, India has moved to BS-VI norms (equivalent euro 6 norms), it will be relatively easier for the company to cater to domestic as well as an export market with the same engines (with few moderations).   PSR

Aditya Kondejkar is Research Analyst – South Asia Operations – for Power Systems Research

Suzuki Moves Aggressively To Regain India Market Share

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

A key portion of Maruti Suzuki’s mid-term goal to achieve 50% overall PV (passenger vehicle) market share by becoming the number one SUV seller in the country. This is important for Maruti Suzuki because even though the automaker’s market share in the non-SUV segments is more than 65%, its SUV share was only 10.5% in 2022.

Source: The Times of India    Read The Article

Capacity Expansion.

The company is planning to invest Rs 18,000 crore for the Kharkhoda facility in Haryana. This will increase the capacity by one million units. Further, by the end of the decade, Maruti Suzuki plans to invest over 45,000 crore to quadruple production capacity to four million vehicles in order to meet domestic consumer demand and increase exports from India.

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India Government Announces Scrappage Policy

Aditya Kondejkar

The central government in mid-April announced its long-awaited vehicle scrappage policy. Under the new policy, in case of failure to get a fitness certificate, commercial vehicles will be de-registered after 15 years. Private vehicles will be de-registered after 20 years if found unfit or in case of a failure to renew registration certificates

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There are approximately 50 lakh vehicles in India that are older than 20 years, approximately 35 lakh vehicles older than 15 years, and approximately 15 lakh older than 15 years without renewed fitness certificate.

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