Hyundai Invests Rs 3,200 Crore In India, Will Develop A Brand-New EV

Hyundai Motors just recently completed 25 years of operations in India. During this period, our country’s second-largest vehicle manufacturer has sold over 90 lakh units. This is very impressive because the Indian buyer is a very cost-sensitive one, and want the best value for their money which makes it very difficult to make the perfect Indian vehicle. Hyundai has been able to understand its target audience very well and added its own strengths to it, one of them bringing new technologies and features. The South Korean automaker currently holds a 17.2% market share in the world’s fifth-largest auto market. Hyundai also has updated its Indian manufacturing facility to the latest Industry 4.0 application as it wants the country to be the hub of the automaker’s production centre. And just recently, Hyundai announced that it will invest Rs 3,200 crore in India, of which a large chunk will go towards developing a new Electric SUV for the domestic market.

The new Hyundai EV is most probably going to be an SUV as Indian customers are currently inclined towards buying SUVs. The automaker understands that the future of personal mobility is electric and realizes the growth potential of the EV market. Also, looking at the Tata Nexon EV’s success in the country, Hyundai is planning to develop a more affordable EV in India. Currently, the Kona EV is a bit too expensive, and offering a cheaper model will be the way forward to go given our country’s price-sensitive consumer.

The biggest challenge for EVs in India is the lack of a complete infrastructure at the moment, but the market is ready for adoption and the government is also pushing the mass adoption of EVs through incentives. A lot of private companies are coming up with innovative electric mobility solutions, like Tata Power for example. Recently MG also announced their tie-ups with multiple players in this field, which means a proper charging infrastructure is coming earlier than you think. This is going to make sure that people will be alleviated of the biggest concern for EVs, range-anxiety.

The success of the Tata Nexon EV as India’s best selling electric vehicle has shown that the adoption of EVs is coming sooner rather than later. Hyundai will probably launch the EV SUV in the next two years, by then which the EV infrastructure will be much better than currently as well.