BMW India sees surge in electric vehicle sales amid automatic slowdown

New Delhi: German automaker BMW tripled its annual growth in India’s electric vehicle sales in the first three months of the year, contradicting the widespread skepticism of the automotive industry about the speed of electric vehicle adoption.

For BMW, India’s second largest premium car seller, its total electric car sales of 646 cars from January to March accounted for 17% of the country’s total sales of 3,914 cars. Its overall sales increased by 7% over the same period of the same year.

“Many players set some unrealistic expectations about transitioning to electric vehicles in a short time, which is why there is some disappointment in the pace of adoption,” said Vikram Pawah, president and CEO of BMW Group India India in an interview.

India’s third largest automaker Tata Motors Ltd said in a meeting with analysts that it may consider extending the life of traditional internal combustion engine platforms to slow down in major western electric vehicle markets such as the United States and Europe to build its cars.

British luxury car maker Aston Martin has also postponed plans to push its pure electric vehicles into 2030.

Partho Banerjee, senior executive of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, recently sold and sold, noting that in India, electric vehicles remain secondary cars in many households, in which sales are unlikely to see rapid growth.

“Electric vehicles sold today are not primary cars, but secondary. Buyers will not be confident until we don’t address the customer’s issues of scope, charging infrastructure and post-sales,” Banerjee said in an April 1 media briefing.

Electric vehicle sales in India grew 20% from the same period last year to nearly 100,000 in 2024, but the country’s electric vehicle penetration rate is only 2.5%.

Global slowdown and Trump uncertainty

BMW India’s Pawah remains optimistic about the prospects of electric vehicles in the premium sector, with BMW competing with Mercedes-Benz, Audi and Volvo.

The automaker launched the new EV model BMW IX1 Long Wellbase at the Global Auto Expo in New Delhi in January and received over 1,500 pre-orders.

“We witnessed the same interest in electric vehicles in emerging urban centers and in the top 10 cities. The range offered is attractive to customers in smaller cities,” Parva said.

Despite the slowdown in the automotive industry, the premium market has performed better. In 2024, BMW sold 15,721 units in India, an increase of 11% from the previous year. Of these, 1,249 are electric vehicles.

However, the global auto industry faces increased uncertainty due to additional tariffs on cars and auto parts by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities said in an April 1 report that global auto players are cutting investment in new technology research and are temporarily focusing on core businesses, but due to such policy uncertainty.

“Most OEMs (OEMs) say that even if the launch of new platforms around the new platform continues, despite caution, investment is now peaking,” analysts Kawaljeet Saluja, Vamshi Krishna and Satishkumar S. wrote in a Kotak note.

“As expectations for subsidies for U.S. electric vehicles and the EU encounters expansion of CO2 regulations, most OEMs will refocus on their ice product pipelines, but still expect [battery electric vehicle] Elara Capital analyst Jay Kale wrote in a March 18 note.