Indian conglomerate Mahindra and Mahindra said today it was planning to build a $1.2bn electric vehicle (EV) assembly plant near the city of Pune in the state of Maharashtra.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Mumbai-based company said the investment would be made over a period of up to eight years, and would be accompanied by an industrial promotion programme for EVs, paid for by the Maharashtra government.
The Pune plant will help Mahindra compete with Tata Motors for India’s EV sales. The country’s car market is small compared with the size of its population – at present, around 3 million vehicles are sold a year, compared with 21.5 million in China. EVs make up about 1% of those sales, but the Indian government wants to increase this to 30% by 2030.
According to Reuters, Mahindra Group is in talks with investors to raise up to $500m for its new EV unit. In August, it agreed a deal to buy electric components from Volkswagen.
Mahindra is the world’s largest tractor company by volume, and also operates in the tourism, IT and property industries.
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