India’s electric vehicle transition is being driven not only by large-scale manufacturing but also by early-stage innovation, risk-taking, and category creation led by startups.
While the Auto PLI scheme would have played an important role in catalysing investments, its current structure risks prioritising past scale over future capability. This creates a gap where several electric-first companies, which are investing deeply in innovation, localisation, and new product categories, remain outside its ambit despite contributing meaningfully to the ecosystem.
EV category creation in India has seen significant contributions from electric-first companies as much as from legacy platforms. At Euler Motors, we have invested over ₹1,500 crore in indigenous EV technology, people, domestic manufacturing, created close to 2,000 jobs, and helped scale adoption across both the three-wheeler and four-wheeler cargo ecosystem.
Commercial vehicle electrification is one of the most consequential and underdiscussed parts of India’s EV transition. It is one segment that contributes the maximum carbon emission, polluting the world that we breathe in. However, fleet operators don’t switch on sentiment or promise of a green future. They switch when the product works and the economics make sense. Day and night.
In three-wheelers, we entered when EV penetration was under 1%. We demonstrated to the market that an EV product could match the performance of an ICE segment vehicle, while saving money and making it desirable. Segment grew, electrification improved. More recently, although we entered the electric four-wheel cargo market later than most players, we contributed to early category growth. We demonstrated that the right product value can accelerate EV adoption while building a strong market share quickly.
What the current PLI scheme is doing for startups is forcing us to operate at a structural cost disadvantage of ~13-16% as compared to traditional OEMs in the same mohallas, same mandis, same cities. This ~13-16% could mean life or death for a startup. Over time, these risks distort competition in segments where startups are driving innovation and adoption.
My submission is simple – I don’t want to take away from what incumbents have done to build the industry. I also don’t want to take away what our government has done to build the EV industry. However, going forward, policy should reward intent in the form of performance, innovation, people, and investment, not just legacy/ age.
If India’s ambition is to build global EV champions, policy frameworks must recognise not just those who scaled the past, but also those actively building the future.
