For being late to the party, Honda Cars India missed out a large slice of the pie when the popularity of diesel engines soared in the country. Now, with EVs being touted as the next big wave, the Japanese car maker wants to among the first to step foot into that arena. According to a report, Honda will launch a tailored for India Electric Vehicle by the year 2023-24.
India will be a part of the car maker’s Global electric rollout plan, which will start gathering steam, starting with China. Such is Honda’s enthusiasm towards the EV scheme of things, it isn’t even waiting for the Government of India to announce a proper Electric mobility policy. The report states that their popular sedan – the Honda city, will benefit from a Hybrid treatment. On the other hand, a proper B-segment vehicle or a compact SUV will be announced as the company’s first all-electric offering for India.
Since no particular model has been decided upon, yet, Honda’s electric car plan for India defines that the vehicle should be a city car and must go at least 150 – 200 km on a full charge. They also want to localise manufacturing of components, so that Electric mobility remains a competitive solution and not just a fancy purchase for wealthy activists. It’s not just Honda though, Maruti has a well-defined plan which is shared with Toyota Kirloskar, and Tata and Mahindra are already at it. Before these car makers go all out though, they will ensure that we have, if not a great, at least a decent enough charging infrastructure in place. What they will also have to cure is something called “range anxiety” and charging times will definitely have to go up.
Source: ET