M&M eyes West European markets for electric vehicles

With not-so-encouraging sale of its electric vehicles on the home turf, leading commercial and passenger automobile company Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is eyeing the export markets of Western Europe, an official of the company said.

"We are targeting the West European markets of Norway, UK and France for the sale of electric vehicles," executive director and president (automobile and farm equipment) of M&M Pawan Goenka said in Kolkata on Friday.

M&M, which had already launched the 'e2o' electric vehicles in the country, was not quite satisfied with the sales performance.

"The sale performance of the electric vehicles of the company is very poor. We are selling around 250 units all over the country whereas we expected to sell around 100 units per month," Goenka told reporters.

This, he said, was primarily due to lack of governmental support at state levels. "The state governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra were providing incentives for purchase of electric vehicles," he said.

The West Bengal government was also giving some incentives, he added.

Goenka said that next year, the company is aiming to export the vehicles to the West European markets.

"We will be happy if the company is able to sell 100 units overseas and 100 units in the domestic market. This is a good volume for us," he said.

M&M, which bought REVA electric car company, would continue to make investments in acquired firm, Goenka said.