'Nepal chose China over us': Blunt warning sounds alarm for Indian EV carmakers

India lost a key auto market — and it’s not in Europe or Africa. It’s Nepal. For the first time ever, Chinese carmakers have overtaken Indian brands to become the largest sellers of cars in Nepal, grabbing a commanding 52.5% market share in FY25.

“This is a huge deal,” wrote market commentator Jayant Mundhra on LinkedIn. “Maruti, Tata, Mahindra and other made-in-India cars had long dominated the Nepali car market.” That dominance, he says, has now “evaporated” — and what’s worse, it happened on a level playing field.

Nepal, a power-surplus nation with 85% of its electricity sourced from clean hydropower, saw electric vehicles as a strategic move to slash its dependency on imported petrol and diesel — all of which came from India. It slashed tariffs and import duties on EVs, making electric cars far cheaper than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

The result? “In FY25, 75% of all new cars sold in Nepal were electric,” Mundhra noted. “And 70% of those came from China.” Chinese automakers didn’t just make a dent — they swept the market.

To Mundhra, the numbers lay bare an inconvenient truth. “This should be a moment of reckoning for anyone who claims Tata and Mahindra’s EVs are as good as Chinese ones. If they were, their sales wouldn’t have disappeared in a neutral market like Nepal.”

He also points to the Indian market, where Chinese brands like MG’s Windsor and BYD are making steady inroads. “Windsor has left Tata’s Nexon and others in the dust—even while paying heavy import duties. And still, their cars are cheaper,” he said.

The only reason Indian carmakers haven’t faced the same wipeout here? “They should sit down and thank the Government of India for keeping the Indian market protected. Else, things would’ve played out exactly like Nepal.”