German carmaker Volkswagen mulls bringing its first electric vehicle in India by 2024 with the launch of premium electric SUV ID.4 to tap the opportunity in the fast-growing electric mobility verticals in the country, a senior company official said.
By 2030, Volkswagen expects 25-30% of its total sales in India to come from electric vehicles and the rest from internal combustion engine vehicles.
Volkswagen, which has introduced a slew of new variants of its existing conventional engine models, Taigun and Virtus, is looking at a sales growth of 40-45% this year. Commenting on the development, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India Brand Director Ashish Gupta said the company is keping up a multi-pronged strategy of premiumisation and electrification to strengthen presence and enhance its footprint in India.
''Our strategy is very clear. One is premiumisation and the second has to be naturally in line with global positioning, electrification,'' he said. Asserting that electrification has to be ''done now'', he said,''You have to start doing it now to be able to bring a mass electric car, in the timelines that the industry is looking at somewhere in between 2026-27. That's what most of the market is looking at in terms of mass electrification. We are looking at similar timelines.'' He further said,''We are working towards it and if all goes well definitely next year, I would like to bring this here.'' The ID4 will be assembled in India at the company's Aurangabad plant with parts and components imported.
He said electric mobility in India has grown faster than expected and the company believes that by 2030 the level of electric vehicle penetration in the passenger vehicles segment in the country could be around 18-30% of total sales on the basis of different studies.
As for Volkswagen , he said it isis on the more optimistic side and electirc vehicle share to its overall sales in India could be around 25-30% with the rest coming from internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. Electrification will come in steps as the ecosystem is currently not ready in India, he added.
Volkswagen will focus on premiumisation and network expansion, along with the addition of new variants to existing models to further propel its growth. The semiconductor shortage issue, due to which the company had suffered production loss of around 18,000 last year, has improved although it has not fully been resolved.
India-US trade rose by 8% in 2022-23, fell 1.5% with China