India's EV thrust should be led by luxury brands

Demand in this segment has been impressively strong and relatively price inelastic. An EV charge led by luxury cars could reset broad aspirations and hasten mass-market adoption

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With sales in the fast-lane, luxury carmaker Mercedes is reportedly mulling over raising its local production capacity, potentially even doubling it should the strength of current Indian demand sustain. Welcome as it would be, we await a full-throttle electric vehicle (EV) thrust in the luxury car segment, whose demonstration effect could cue preferences across the broader market. Despite the government's emphasis, our EV adoption has lagged conversion rates in many other countries. We seem to be going about the electric transition two-wheelers first, even as fourwheelers, which have led this shift elsewhere, have been slow to relieve our streets of exhaust fumes. Although Tata EVs have marked their presence in traffic, passenger cars with green number-plates remain few and far between. This is mostly because the cost-of-ownership math for value seekers still favours internal combustion engine (ICE)-driven vehicles, with range anxiety, battery ageing and patchy recharging networks dampening interest as well. Luxury marques ha