India's EV journey: A strong foundation for the next phase of growth

Every major industrial shift reaches a moment when focus turns to building long-term capability after early milestones are achieved. Today, India is moving from exploring EVs to increasingly embracing them. While challenges galore, the next stage in the country’s EV story is going to be about transforming this momentum into a robust and future-ready ecosystem.

A market that has found its footing

The change in consumer sentiment has been striking. Range anxiety, which was the single biggest hesitation not long ago, has faded considerably as technology has improved and more charging options have come up. People walking into showrooms today have done their research. They come with questions about range and charging times, not with doubts about whether EVs make sense at all. While a wider product range across price points has helped too, policy has played its part too. The FAME, PM E-DRIVE, 5% GST rate, and state-level incentives collectively have created conditions for adoption to actually take off.

India crossed 2.27 million EV sales in CY2025, and electric passenger vehicle retail grew nearly 88% year-on-year in Q1 FY26. That said, the mass market tells a different story. EV penetration in the overall passenger EV segment is at 4%, while at the premium end it is close to 10%. The gap is wide and bridging it is the real challenge of the next phase.

One factor adding urgency to all of this is oil. Geopolitical instability in West Asia has pushed crude prices higher and made fuel costs unpredictable in a way that is hard to plan around. For both individual buyers and commercial fleet operators, the stable cost of ownership of EVs is starting to look a lot more attractive than it did a few years ago.

Strengthening the strategic backbone

On the manufacturing side, things are moving in the right direction, though there is still a long way to go. PLI schemes have pulled in early investment, and lithium-ion cell manufacturing is beginning to develop domestically. Some Indian companies are already looking at sodium-ion and solid-state chemistries, which is the right instinct, as you cannot only chase today's technology to be relevant in the next ten years.

However, the bigger task is building out the supply chain behind the battery, raw materials, processing, module, and pack assembly. India is heavily dependent on imports and fixing that is not just an industrial policy question but a strategic one.

Meanwhile, cross-brand OEM partnerships to build out charging networks are a welcome development. As of August 2025, India had around 29,277 public charging stations, with over 8,800 fast chargers and about 20,300 slow chargers. That network has grown, and government funding has supported it, which includes Rs 2,000 crore under PM E-Drive for national charging infrastructure.

But the honest assessment is that numbers alone do not solve the problem. A charging station that is broken, or that has one slow charger for six bays, does not help anyone. Public charger uptime in India is currently averaging somewhere between 72% and 78%, against the target of 95%-97%. That gap matters enormously to anyone thinking about buying an EV.

The industry needs to move reactive to proactive approach in terms of charging infrastructure maintenance. As volumes rise and operators consolidate, the economics will improve, but reliability must come before scale and not after.

Financing is another piece of the puzzle which has one of the biggest roles to play. Buyback guarantees, assured resale programs, and flexible ownership models are limited to the premium segment. In the Indian market, the resale value matters a lot and in mass market, the EV used car business has not settled yet so there is apprehension among customers about what their EV is worth after five years. Solving this apprehension for them will be a gamechanger in building confidence.

The economic case for EVs, once you look past the sticker price, is already strong. Running costs of Rs 1.2 to Rs 2 per kilometre compare very favourably against Rs 5 to Rs 9 per kilometre for an ICE car. Fewer parts, no oil changes, and lower servicing frequency are added advantages. For most buyers, the total cost over three to five years works in EV's favour. But getting that message across clearly and backing it with financing products that reduce upfront risk will matter a lot for first-time buyers.

Preparing for the full lifecycle

As volumes scale, battery end-of-life becomes a real issue that needs real infrastructure behind it. The good news is that India can build circular supply chains here, recovering critical materials, reducing imports, and keeping value within the economy. What is needed is a clear national framework for collection, recycling, and reuse. Without it, the materials that go into today's batteries simply exit the value chain at end of life.

Priorities are not complicated, execution is, but it is definitely achievable - cell localisation with a clear chemistry roadmap; reliable charging infrastructure; a stable fiscal framework; consistent GST; predictable state policies on registration and road tax; and a recycling ecosystem built for the volumes that are coming.

The premium segment, as it often does, is showing the rest of the market what is possible. With high-range vehicles, mature financing, and sophisticated buyers, this segment is where confidence gets established and new ownership models get tested. What starts in the premium segment tends to work its way down, and India's EV story is following that trajectory.

The 2030 ambition is not really about a sales number but about whether India builds an industry around EVs or simply imports one. We have made a solid start, with a strong foundation, but what comes next will determine how far this actually goes.