India Turns Tesla’s Business Model on Its Head
- Public transportation, corporate fleets seen as entry point
- Low rate of car ownership offers chance for a different path
Mahindra's electric car "e2o Plus"
Photographer: Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images
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Tesla Inc. helped electric vehicles gain a mainstream foothold in the U.S. by starting with luxury cars and then moving down-market. India’s nascent transition to EVs is heading in the opposite direction.
Many consumers will get their first taste of electric vehicles from public-transit systems and corporate fleets in India, where car ownership per 1,000 citizens is just 20, compared with 800 in the U.S. Companies such as Bangalore-based Lithium Urban Technologies Pvt., which provides EV fleets to corporations, are expanding as India aspires to end sales of internal-combustion engines by 2030.