Presently the demand for electric car in India is still quite small. As per industry estimates, less than 5% cent of the passenger car market in India would make up electric cars for the next 5-7 years , at 1,75,000.
Maruti Suzuki, India’s biggest passenger car producer, had displayed the SX4 hybrid and an electric car on the platform of its newly introduced Eeco.
In fact, Maruti is also building some demo cars, both hybrids and EVs, for the coming Commonwealth Games and it thinks these vehicles could be used for later development of EVs.
Similarly, there is i10 Electric from Hyundai Motor Corporation, Indica electric from Tata Motors, anticipated to enter in Norway, Denmark and the UK by the end of 2011, and will be followed by the Indica Vista electric later.
The Chevrolet Volt that would be introduced by General Motors in the US by the end of 2010, and the Fluence, Twizy, Kangoo and Zoe being jointly built by Renault and Nissan for commercial launch in Israel and Europe, are some other EVs that would enter India, besides the newly introduced Toyota Prius hybrid.
However, except Prius, most of these cars have not yet been commercially introduced here, thanks to the high duty structure making them very expensive, shortage of part suppliers for these vehicles and insufficient infrastructure for charging these vehicles.