With free charging and battery rentals, India's carmakers make electric vehicles more affordable for buyers

India is among the world's largest markets for electric vehicles, but that's mainly on the e-2 wheeler and e-3 wheeler side of the market. Sales of electric passenger cars languish at less than one lakh units annually, largely due to the high price of EVs in comparison with conventional vehicles, also known as internal combustion engines (ICEs). 

But the country's carmakers are finding innovative ways to bridge this price gap, and Tata Motors, the country's largest player in e-4 wheelers, is looking to go all out this festive season. 

Earlier this week, the company cut prices on its Punch and Nexon EV by 10-20 percent and is also offering six months of free charging at its 5,500 charging stations. The move brought the price of the Nexon in line with the model's petrol and diesel variants. 

Another company, JSW MG Motor India, launched the Windsor EV, its latest electric vehicle for the Indian market. JSW MG has priced the vehicle at ₹9.99 lakh to bring costs closer to conventional vehicles, but is withholding the battery at that price. Instead, the company has launched its Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) plan, wherein buyers will have to pay ₹3.5 per km as a rental for the battery, provided they buy a minimum of 1,500 km a month. 

Such efforts are needed. India's Cabinet has cleared its next subsidy scheme for electric vehicles, dubbed PM E-DRIVE, and while the scheme allocates funds for e-ambulances and e-trucks, no direct incentives are detailed for buyers of electric 4-wheelers. 

In a statement, Tata Motors called the price cuts and free charging offers as steps "towards mainstreaming EVs and accelerating EV adoption".

Satinder Singh Bajwa, chief commercial officer at JSW MG Motor India, said the BaaS model would be a value-add for consumers. "We are addressing the initial cost barrier of owning an EV…We are giving options to consumers as to how they would like to own the vehicle," Bajwa told reporters.

With the BaaS model, "You are paying for the usage of the battery as you pay for the fuel," Bajwa said. The company would announce ex-showroom prices of the Windsor EV with a fitted battery next month, he added. 

Designed as a 'cross utility vehicle', the Windsor is the first vehicle to be launched under the JSW Group and MG Motor India joint venture, and is a rebadged version of the Cloud EV sold in China. Company executives say the vehicle will achieve 80 percent localization level in the next 12-18 months.

Much like Tata Motors, JSW MG Motor India expects its new pricing and sales model to attract buyers. Rajeev Chaba, the company's CEO Emeritus, said the Windsor EV was likely to tip more than half the company's sales in favor of EVs from 35 percent at present.

"We have five cars right now and Windsor is the sixth -- a total of three EVs and three ICE vehicles… With Windsor coming in, EV should be over 50 percent of our sales," Chaba said.