Fleets are the way towards popularisation of electric vehicles: Anand Mahindra

For Mahindra group, from whose stable electric luxury supercar Battista is being rolled out, the path to mass adoption of electric vehicles will be through fleet such as Ola, according to the group's Chairman Anand Mahindra.

At present electric vehicles (EVs) are out of reach of price sensitive buyers, specially in India, but the usage of such vehicles by fleet operators will help in achieving economies of scale in the industry and ultimately help in reaching personal mobility, Mahindra told PTI here in an interview.

Speaking at the sidelines of the 89th Geneva International Motor Show, he also said the group is also working on how to bring its GenZe electric scooters to India as it would be "too expensive" for the market there currently.

"Right now the break even for electric cars applies more to cars that are used much more. The more you use the electric cars the better your payback," he said.

Welcoming the Rs 10,000 crore FAME II scheme under which four-wheeler electric vehicles will get subsidy only for fleet operators and commercial purposes, Mahindra said, "What the government has done is spot on."
He, however, added, "Whether they (government) had done it or not we had decided to focus on fleet anyway."
When asked about the group's electric two-wheeler programme, Mahindra said,"We make GenZe e-scooters overseas (in the US). It is too expensive for India but we have some thoughts."
He further said, "The e-scooters will come to Europe first. So GenZe may even be marketed by under Peugeot which we own in Europe. So the question is how to bring it to India, we are working on it."