Hyundai is considering a number battery-powered pure
electric cars for India. According to a report from The Times of India, one of
these models is a Hyundai Xcent Electric.
Hyundai will enter the electric car segment in India
with the Hyundai Kona Electric. However, with even the regular Hyundai Kona not
a feasible product in terms of pricing, its pure electric variant is expected
to be out of the budget of majority car buyers. For a high-volume sales, the
company will need a much cheaper, highly localised model.
It is not that the Hyundai Xcent Electric will
attract relatively lower GST than the Hyundai Kona. This is because electric
cars are not bound by the (4 metre) length restriction when it comes to
taxation and there’s a standard 12% GST charged on them. However, the Hyundai
Xcent is a rather basic and highly localised model, unlike the rather
sophisticated Hyundai Kona, which is based on the Hyundai i30’s platform. Also,
a pure electric Hyundai Xcent could pave way for an even cheaper and possibly
more frugal pure electric Hyundai Grand i10.
EVs from Hyundai aren’t arriving anytime soon, with
the first model due only sometime in 2019. This year, the company will
introduce the facelifted Hyundai i20, facelifted Hyundai Creta, and the Hyundai
AH2 aka Hyundai Santro.
