BMW seeks lower import duties on EVs for some time to boost demand
As BMW gears up to introduce electric vehicles in the country, it believes that reduction in import duties on EVs for a limited number of units will help to create a demand in order to help in the production of such vehicles in India and bring in new technologies in a quicker pace, said a senior official of the company.
The automaker considers that by localisation of the manufacturing process, demand can be created. The company for the last 15 years has been locally producing many of its vehicles that are sold in the country. BMW Group India President and CEO Vikram Pawah shared that the company first creates demand for a model and then localises it. “We believe these new technologies also have a potential to be localised in future but you need to create a mass demand for that critical mass (for local manufacturing to be viable)," he was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
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Pawah conveyed that this can be only achieved either by first creating the demand before the development of the infrastructure or creating the demand that will in turn create the infrastructure. “Then we can localise by that time these technologies which are mature and then we can apply it into the country," he added. He went ahead to add that for this move, the company is seeking a reduction in import duties only for a limited time and limited quantities.
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Pawah explained that if this happens, it will allow the automaker to keep manufacturing in India and bring new technologies in a quicker manner. “That is what our consistency has been always that at any point any new technologies we should do that. It will allow even safety technologies, environment, green technologies to come into India faster," he added. BMW has announced that it is going to bring three electric vehicles in the next six months in India to push its electrification goals in the country.
The EVs that BMW has planned to launch in the country are all-electric BMW iX followed by MINI luxury hatchback EV and electric BMW i4 sedan.
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