Reasons for Poor Performance of e-Verito in the Indian Automotive Sector

Abstract

Global environmental concerns have resulted in stricter emission standards for vehicles all over the world. This has paved the way for the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) at scale in the consumer automobile sector and do not directly contribute to vehicular emissions. Mahindra Electric, a subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) launched a purely electric version of their popular sedan, Verito in 2016 with the moniker ‘e-Verito’, and positioned it as “India’s first electric sedan”. The government of India also considered e-Verito among one of the products as a part of its procurement program undertaken through the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL). In 2017, an order procurement of a total of 10,000 electric cars from M&M and Tata was made, however, only 1500 electric vehicles were delivered which resulted in EESL to procure EVs from competitive foreign vendors. Among the consumer space, sales reports of e-Verito indicate feeble numbers compared to its local competition. Through a quantitative approach, the research paper aims to identify the key causes for the poor performance of e-Verito in the Indian market compared to its competition. The research is backed by a primary research conducted through survey questionnaire given to present employees at Mahindra & Mahindra in order to elicit the key causes for the low volume sales and acceptance of e-Verito in the Indian market.