‘India may become dependent on lithium imports’
The last two years have been fairly busy for Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd. While sales of its popular models such as Fortuner, Crysta, Innova and Altis have exceeded expectations, the company had to grapple with regulatory issues — first with a diesel ban in Delhi NCR and now the dilemma over electric vehicles.
Vikram Kirloskar, vice-chairman, is very vocal about India’s stance in favour of electric vehicles (EVs). Edited excerpts from an interview:
Toyota is seen in the market as an antielectric vehicle (EV) company. Why are you averse to bringing the technology to India?
We make more than one-and-ahalf million EVs in the world but I think it’s the wrong thing for India. Our long-term requirements are better fuel efficiency because we need to reduce oil imports, a cleaner environment and more safety. These three things are needed to survive longterm in the mobility game. Look at all the studies on emissions and efficiency. You can reduce energy consumption if the overall system is more efficient.
Data from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, based on Indian driving cycles, fuel systems and electricity production, shows that hybrids are the most efficient for the environment and energy consumption. While India’s capacity to produce electricity from renewable sources is about 70%, actual production is about 90% coal-based. On that basis, EVs produce far more emissions than a hybrid. While I fully agree that we have to reduce dependence on oil imports, it may soon happen that we start to depend on lithium imports. We need to decide if we want to deal with the Chinese or the Arabs?
A hybrid is basically an EV with a smaller battery than a full EV; it is much more complex. The customers will finally drive what is sold.
They are intelligent enough to understand what is happening with the environment. As more data comes in, they will know what is the right way to go. So, it’s not that we won’t do electric. Hybrids will still have an electric motor and can run on them 100%.
So have you been able to convey this to the government?
We are trying our best. As the government is seeing more scientific engineering data, they are starting to understand.
Let me put it the other way. The government is saying they want 30% of vehicles to be electric in the next 15-20 years. The industry said fine, and they will be a part of that. What happens to the remaining 70%? That’s still six million vehicles.
The oil ministry has started expanding refineries because they anticipate more requirement for petrol and diesel. If you really want to reduce that requirement, these (hybrids) consume 50% lesser fuel.
Take all that data and take a call on it. Now it’s becoming evangelical in the sense that it must be done because I (the government) have said it must.
How have you communicated this to Japan?
They know what we’ve been doing. Toyota and Suzuki have announced they’ll make EVs in Gujarat.
Is Toyota Kirloskar Motor involved in that partnership?
No. But we’ll find out soon enough about how that’s developing. Suzuki is great at making small cars which we are not.
Is that the strategy going forward?
We are very much in the premium car market, part of which is also the Yaris, which we launched. There is no technical difference between that and a Camry or a Corolla, no high-end features have been taken away.
What can we expect from Toyota Kirloskar Motors in the next five to seven years?
As a company, we’ve been working hard on reducing our carbon footprint. We don’t use freshwater for production for over 10 months of the year. We are looking to make our company good for the country. You’ll see more on environment and safety.
And, once in a while, there will be regulation changes….
The strategy we’ve adopted in the past several years, for example in terms of safety, is to stay ahead of regulation. For this, I must give credit to Toyota. The same bestin-class safety standards apply to their cars no matter where they sell them.