BYD is to come out with another model this year in India. The Chinese automaker is bullish on the evolution of electric vehicle market in the country. Senior vice-president of the passenger EV business of BYD India, Sanjay Gopalakrishnan said that the company sold 700 EV cars of a single model in 2022. Also, the automaker expects to sell 15,000 units of three models this year.
At a time when the Indian government’s scrutiny of Chinese firms is on the rise, Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firm BYD (Build Your Dreams) is looking to project itself as a global technology company. Another Chinese firm Great Wall Motor Co. which planned to invest $1 billion in India, didn’t get government approval to buy the General Motors Co. plant. The government is also probing SAIC Motor Corp-owned MG Motor India over alleged financial irregularities. To deal with the challenges of operating as a Chinese company in India, BYD said its “global technology company” image will help instill customer confidence.
“We’re projecting ourselves as a global tech company. First if the customer confidence comes then I think most of the things are sorted out. Customer wants the car and the product technologies which we’ve already established. That will play a major role in establishing ourselves. Politically, things happen in every country. We have to manage that at a long-term level. We have been in India for last 15 years through various routes,” said Sanjay Gopalakrishnan, senior vice president, BYD India.
BYD sales
Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway was the world’s biggest seller of EVs and plug-in hybrids in 2022 with a total of 1.86 million sales as compared to 1.3 million of Tesla sold. “We want to be a big EV player in the Indian market in the PV space,” Gopalakrishnan added. BYD delivered 700 vehicles in India last year and is targeting people who are looking to purchase a second or third car. Gopalakrishnan is looking to capture 40 per cent of India’s EV market share by 2030. The company plans to its third electric model, the Seal luxury sedan, by the last quarter of 2023 and is targeting to sell 15,000 electric vehicles this year.
“This year we want to achieve a certain target volume of 15,000. That’s what we’re looking at with the three products which we have launched. We also want to expand our sales network to almost close to 63 outlets in the country. Going forward looking at the market development, we’ll grow with new products,” he added.
