New Delhi: India’s electric vehicle policy was something that was negotiated by Tesla but it “certainly helps”, said Carlos Tavares, the chief executive of the world’s third largest carmaker, Stellantis.
The group, which owns several brands including Chrysler, Citroën, Fiat and Jeep, is considering locally manufacturing affordable electric vehicles from its Chinese joint venture partner Leapmotor at its facility in Thiruvallur, Tamil Nadu.
“This (the EV policy) is an opportunity that we did not study yet, but I understand the intention and I understand why you can be able to win (investments) for the country and from the carmaker that will come with EVs,” Tavares told ET on a video call.
India announced a new policy on March 15 to encourage investment in local manufacturing of high-end electric cars. The government said it will allow the import of completely built-up electric cars that have a minimum cost, insurance and freight value of USD 35,000 (INR 29.2 lakh) at 15% import duty for a period of five years if companies make a minimum investment of USD 500 million to start local manufacturing.
Leapmotor for now is looking at selling affordable electric cars in India, which will mostly be priced under the cap specified in the policy.
Tavares said Stellantis is already manufacturing EVs in Thiruvallur under the Citroën badge and has sold fleets of the eC3 car to several companies in India. “So far it’s moving quite well, and I know that the local team is quite happy with those B2B sales,” he said.
Tavares said Leapmotor vehicles will make their way to India in the second wave of global expansion of the newly formed JV, Leapmotor International, in the last quarter of 2024. “Any manufacturing facility that we have around the world can be used to support the profitable growth of Leapmotor overseas. We have a (production) capacity of 90,000 units at Thiruvallur, and so far it’s not saturated,” he said. “While it is too soon to say, but as we both know the tariffs to import CBUs in India are very high. Most probably, if we are to bring Leapmotor to India, it would have to be through local manufacturing as it is for all the other brands we have.”He did not specify details of additional investments required to commence local manufacturing of EVs from Leapmotor in India. The company is looking at introducing a small A-segment car, T03, and a D-segment vehicle, C10, to begin with.
Stellantis currently sells vehicles from Jeep and Citroën brands in the country. Citroën-badged vehicles are made in Thiruvallur.
In addition to local sales, Tavares said Stellantis is looking at leveraging India as an export hub to ship out more vehicles, particularly to markets in Southeast Asia.
In response to a question on whether Stellantis is looking at exporting electric vehicles under the Leapmotor badge from India, he said: “We are already exporting vehicles – C3 and eC3 – out of India to Southeast Asia. So that’s something that we are eager to do. We will try to continue to expand the exports out of India to Southeast Asia at this stage.”
Citroën, a relatively new entrant in the country, exported 3,278 vehicles last fiscal year compared with 204 units in FY23.
Citroën recently announced fresh investments of INR 2,000 crore in India for various initiatives including introducing new vehicles with petrol as well as electric powertrains.
Amsterdam-based Stellantis Tuesday signed a binding agreement with China’s Leapmotor to form Leapmotor International, after they received regulatory approvals for the joint-venture deal. Stellantis controls a majority stake of 51% in the JV.
Stellantis had acquired an about 21% stake in Leapmotor for 1.5 billion euros in October 2023, paving the way for the formation of the JV company. The JV has exclusive rights to manufacture, sell and export Leapmotor vehicles outside of China.
“We are now in the planning phase to go to the markets and start exporting vehicles out of China to the rest of the world,” Tavares said.
Leapmotor will enter nine European countries in the first phase starting September: Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Portugal. The brand will be sold across 200 dealerships in the region. In the second phase, Leapmotor International will enter South America, the Middle East, Africa, India and the Asia Pacific regions.
The JV plans to bring in a portfolio of six models to international markets by 2027. Affordability is right now the number one problem with EV expansion worldwide. “With Leapmotor, we are going to be able to bring faster to our markets affordable EVs that will not only contribute to the profitable growth of Stellantis, but of course, they will also contribute faster and in a more efficient way to fixing the global warming issue that we have to fix as humanity,” said Tavares.
