TVS Motor, Hero MotoCorp turn to hybrid scooters; launch in a year
Venu Srinivasan, chairman and MD of TVS Motor Corp, said that there is a huge need to shift to electric and hybrid vehicles in order to reduce the rapidly rising pollution levels in cities like Delhi. But, the shift to electric/hybrids makes sense only when power production itself shifts to cleaner technologies like nuclear, solar and wind.
“We’re working on electric and hybrid scooters and plan to do trial marketing on hybrids within the next one year. We’re optimistic about the need for such things given the pollution levels, maybe the government should mandate the sale hybrid vehicles to some level in the cities,” he said.
There are many companies that already make electric scooters in India, such as Hero Electric, Electrotherm, but the market size has been limited to around 50,000-60,000 units a year because of high price, range issues and charging problems. Electric cars, however are currently only made by Mahindra-Reva in India, though Toyota Kirloskar, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki have all showed interest in the segment.
The government, however, is optimistic of electric/hybrid cars and is unravelling a policy that will take care of R&D, charging infrastructure, as well as subsidies
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