Steel to ports conglomerate JSW Group may be a late entrant in India's automobile market, but, in partnership with MG and SAIC, it aims to dominate the market for new energy vehicles (NEV), with plans to sell one million electric vehicles by 2030, including pure electrics as well as plug-in hybrid vehicles.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Maruti Suzuki disrupted the Indian car market, with a slew of modern and fuel-efficient cars that helped it corner more than half of the passenger vehicle market in the country. JSW Group aims for a similar 'Maruti moment' in the EV space.
"Over the next ten years, we are very sure India is going to move from a four million passenger vehicle (PV) market to a 10 million PV market. It is our aim to have 33 per cent of the market of the NEV segment by the year 2030 and that means we want to sell one million PVs, only electric, by 2030, apart from all the products that we will sell," said Parth Jindal, member of the steering committee of JSW MG Motor India.
In December 2023, Chinese automobile giant SAIC Motor and the Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group had entered into a strategic joint venture. In this JV company called JSW MG Motor India, JSW will hold a 35 per cent stake, MG Motor dealers will hold 3 per cent, 5 per cent will be kept for employees and an Indian financial investor will have 8 per cent stake. So, 51 per cent of the JV will be Indian owned.
All the stakeholders will invest Rs 5,000 crore in the JV.
JSW is among the largest steel producers in the country. JSW Infra is also the second-largest private port operator in the country. The Jindals aim to leverage these strengths in the automobile business too.
"JSW Steel is the leading steel supplier to the auto industry. As we go forward, the entire quantity of steel for JSW MG Motor will be coming from JSW Steel," said Parth.
In February, the JSW Group signed an agreement with the Odisha government to set up an EV manufacturing facility in the state at an investment of Rs 40,000 crore. That plan envisages the establishment of an integrated EV and EV battery manufacturing project at Cuttack and Paradip.
"The products from the investments we make in Odisha will first be catered to this JV, the batteries that we will make are for JSW MG and with this we aim to bring down the cost of the product, localise in India, so we can bring NEVs at the right price point, if not lower at least at the same price as ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles," pointed Parth.
The JSW MG Motor JV plans to launch one new product every three to six months, starting with the festive season this year, around when the plan is to launch two products, one ICE and another EV.
MG Motor currently sells the Hector, Gloster and Astor ICE SUVs, and ZS and Comet EVs in India.
It has a capacity to produce 1.20 lakh vehicles annually at its plant in Halol, Gujarat. This capacity will be increased to around 3 lakh vehicles annually under the JV.
Electric vehicle volumes in India jumped 50 per cent in 2023 surpassing 1.5 million units, according to a report by CARE Edge. However, PVs accounted for just about 5 per cent of the sales. Two-wheelers accounted for 56 per cent and three-wheelers 38 per cent. Homegrown Tata Motors currently has over 70 per cent share in the passenger electric vehicle market in the country.
The Union government last week announced import duty cuts for EVs; automakers will be able to import up to 8,000 EVs a year priced at $35,000 or more at an import duty of 15 per cent, versus 70 per cent earlier, provided they committed an investment of $500 million in India over the next three years. The move is seen as an incentive for global EV makers like Tesla to come to India.
Vietnamese carmaker VinFast announced in January plans to invest $2 billion for setting up an EV factory in India. Chinese car maker BYD is also expanding its portfolio in the country and earlier this month launched the Seal electric sedan.