Source : PTI | French auto major Renault is looking for a local supplier-based electric vehicle system in India, which will help them offer vehicles at affordable prices, according to a senior company official. Renault does not want to burden the customer with huge costs, generally associated with an Electric Vehicle (EV), the official said, adding that it is focusing on the mass market, with an eye on the middle and upper-middle classes.
“We need a lot of local suppliers for EVs because we want to go for a local supplier-based system. So, the cost of acquisition (for a buyer) becomes competitive,” Venkatram Mamillapalle, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Renault India Operations, told PTI during a recent interaction. “We are going to focus on SUVs, followed by EVs. Maybe, we are a little shy because of the (EV) ecosystem has not completely matured in India,” he said.
Further, he said the company needs to see the economics of investments because if it does not get volumes, it is the customer who gets burdened.
“So, we want to be very sensible because we are more adaptable to the mass market. We need to focus on the middle and upper-middle class segment and take care of their ability to invest and have a more reasonable cost of ownership,” he added.
Sounding confident that the growth in the domestic automobile market is “inevitable” with passenger vehicles sales expected to be 3.8-4 million this year, he said it is very important that infrastructure supports the whole passenger car industry as well as the truck industry.
The work on the INR 5,300 crore-investment plan announced by the Renault-Nissan Alliance in India in February this year for six new cars — three each from Renault and Nissan — has started and is well on track, he added.
