No plans to launch electric vehicles in India: Toyota

Toyota has no plans to launch an electric vehicle in India and would wait for the charging infrastructure to develop before taking a call on launching such models, according to a senior official of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM).

"We have no plans to go electric," vice chairman and whole-time director of TKM, Shekar Viswanathan told PTI over buzz around EVs (electric vehicles) in the domestic auto industry with the government's aggressive push towards e-mobility.

TKM is a joint venture between the Japanese auto major and Kirloskar Group. "Toyota (Motor Corporation) does have an electric vehicle (in its portfolio and launched in some overseas markets) but we (TKM) will wait for the charging infrastructure to come up in India before we ask Toyota Motor Corporation to give us (TKM) electric vehicle products," he said.

Viswanathan said electric vehicle technology is very simple and so, it's not very difficult to introduce such models, and agreed with the view that TKM can launch EVs at short notice. "We (TKM) already have an electric vehicle in the hybrid, which is an electric vehicle...except that if we take away the internal combustion engine, it will become an all electric vehicle," he added.

On his expectation of TKM sales in the current financial year, Viswanathan said, "I do think it will go down slightly (compared to the previous fiscal) given the fact that GST rates have gone up."