Society of Electric Vehicle Manufacturers (SMEV) Director-General Sohinder Gill opines that the coronavirus pandemic and the current lockdown will make it hard for smaller players in the electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler industry to survive.
This is in the short-term fold at least. Mr Gill says that in the shutdown, the day-to-day operations and the retail is zero. If there are no sales, many small and medium players, who are already experiencing cash crunch situations, will further find it hard as they don’t have deeper pockets. He said that their progress would be delayed by a year.
“The Country has to brace for a long haul of hardships that the Covid is going to leave behind and I believe the government will continue to be sensitive to take further steps as and when required to prime up the stuttering economic engine,” he had said on 24 March when the nationwide lockdown was enforced.
On the other side, with the lockdown people will now be able to realize the importance of electric vehicles as they see the current improvement in air quality. This will push the customers and policy makers more in favour of electric vehicles.
Like all other industries, Indian automobile industry is majorly hit with the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown with one estimate pegging losses at Rs 1.23 lakh crore. All the factories are shut with production in standstill and the situation is expected to return to normal not immediately. To contain the virus, state governments are expected to impose restrictions that would heavily impact economic activities for the next few months.
[Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com]
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