Renault To Enter India’s Electric Car Space With Ground-up EVs

As a result, the Kwid EV will not be coming to India after all

• Renault India CEO and MD stated the brand will not modify a combustion model for an electric powertrain.

• The company will only bring affordable EVs to India by ensuring maximum localisation.

• It will likely be a made-for-India model as none of its global models are likely to be brought here.

• There is no official timeline for Renault EVs in India.

The EV space in India is unlikely to see a Renault-badged competitor anytime soon. While we’d earlier expected the French marque to bring the all-electric variant of the Kwid, Renault, it would seem is intent on jumping ahead to dedicated EVs.

Related: Electric Cars in India

In a recent media interaction about the brand’s plans for offering EVs in India, Venkatram Mamillapalle, CEO and MD, Renault India, said, “When we bring, we bring EV. We don’t try to put EV into an ICE modification and things like that. We have to bring a proper EV.”

Renault’s primary concern with adding an EV to its India lineup is to make it affordable through localisation. Currently, various components such as the batteries, electric motors, and battery modules are imported and drive up input costs. Until the brand can achieve maximum localisation, it is unlikely to bring any form of EV to India.

The global Renault lineup has a handful of EVs, but only a couple that are built as dedicated EVs like the Zoe. Its most promising model had been the Dacia Spring Electric, an all-electric iteration of the Kwid which is already on sale in some markets. However, that model is no longer on the table and Renault’s debut EV will likely be a new made-for-India model.

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