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Jaguar Land Rover launched its first-ever all-electric SUV in India. The SUV is priced about twice the price of the entry-level Tesla. The new Jaguar I-Pace is priced around Rs.1.06 crores, while the Tesla is estimated to cost around Rs.60-70 Lakhs. Do note that more than 75% of the sales of SUVs in India are under Rs.12 Lakhs.
India’s Electric Vehicle growth has been happening at a rate much slower than that across the world. This is contributed due to, as yet, lack of infrastructure facilities including charging facilities, the high cost of batteries as also customer finance not being available through the banking sector. It is estimated by BllombergNEF that by 2040, in Germany and China, more than 70% of the passenger cars will be Electric while in India the percentage would be only around 33% in India. However, as per Mr.Rohit Suri, the Indian President of Jaguar, the ever-increasing awareness on pollution norms as also the Government policies and the EV vehicles launched/planned could see the market for EVs growing rapidly.
Jaguar is looking at providing to its consumers an option of an AC wall-mounted charger or a home charging cable of 7.4kw along with the new vehicle. The Jaguar Dealers and Tata Power Co would be installing the chargers at the consumer's house. The consumers would also be given access to the 200 chargers across the nation, on use and pay mode basis. It is gathered that Jaguar Retailers in 19 cities are already ready with the charging facilities.
The company is planning to introduce six EV Land Rovers in the next five years. By 2030, all the Jaguar models and 60% of the Landrovers would be on the EV platform, the company sources said. Jaguar, with the appeal and desirability, that it commands from its premium customers in India, is confident of meeting these goals.
The Indian Government has reduced the GST for EVs from 12% to 5% from August 2019. Compare this with 28% GST for the ICE technology vehicles. This is an encouraging development for EVs. However, as of now, EVs contribute to less than 1% of total sales, and much lower for Cars, but the potential and opportunity are very high.