Homegrown car maker Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Wednesday said it was working on a four-door variant of its electric car E2O that would be exported to Europe.
“We are working on a four-door variant of the car and it will be exported to Europe,” the company’s executive director Pawan Goenka told mediapersons here.
The new model was expected to be rolled out by June-July 2016 and the company would set up a distribution centre in the United Kingdom in this regard.
It is presently exporting the two-door electric vehicles to Nepal.
He said the government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) initiative has boosted the electric cars segment and sales have doubled after the policy was adopted.
Over the sale of electric cars in various states, he said, “Sale of these cars depends a lot on the state governments’ policy towards greener and cleaner vehicles.”
The M&M company has also entered into an agreement with Lithium – a Bengaluru-based electric car rental start-up – to provide cars for its fleet.
“They have 50 cars procured from M&M and have placed order for 50 more,” Goenka said.
The company is scouting for such procurement agreements with car rental firms in New Delhi and Pune to increase its electric vehicles’ sales.
Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is planning to double its market share in the heavy commercial vehicles within two to three years.
“We have been a new entrant in the heavy commercial vehicles space and look forward to double our market share,” the company’s executive director Pawan Goenka told media persons.
Its present market share in the segment is 2.6-2.7 percent which the company hopes to increase to 5-6 percent by 2018.
The company will invest Rs.500 crore to develop new truck models as well as upgrade existing ones. Off this investment, Rs.300 crore have been earmarked for new product development.
While it has a presence in the 5-7-tonne truck segment, its products are in need of upgradation whereas it is entirely absent in the 9-16-tonne trucks space.
The new truck models will be made available 2017 onwards.
On a consolidated basis, the company normally invests Rs 2,500 crore each year on the automotive and tractors space for products and factories development as well as on research projects, he said.
In the utility vehicles segment, it has targeted to capture another 3-4 percent market share from the existing 35-36 percent.