Mahindra Group is not fearful about international gamers like Tesla coming into India’s extremely aggressive electrical automobile market, its CEO and managing director Anish Shah advised CNBC.

“We have seen great competitors in India over the past 20 years. So Tesla or anybody else coming in doesn’t faze us,” Shah stated on “Road Indicators Asia” Tuesday. 

“At one level, Mahindra was written off when all the worldwide majors had been coming into India. As we speak, we proceed to have the primary market share in SUVs from a income standpoint,” he added.

Tesla is reportedly discussing plans to enter the EV area in India, which is the world’s third-largest auto market, in response to Reuters.  

CEO Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June and stated he has plans to “make vital investments in India.”

Regardless of the worldwide competitors, Mahindra has “not simply survived however thrived” within the Indian market, stated Shah.

“We now have near a 50% market share within the gentle industrial automobile phase. We proceed to have 40% plus market share in farm gear and tractors,” the CEO stated, including the corporate expects to carry out effectively within the coming years.

Final week, Mahindra raised $145 million from Singapore’s state-owned investor Temasek for its electrical automobile unit at a valuation of as much as 805.8 billion Indian rupees ($9.8 billion), within the newest fundraising by the Indian automaker. Temasek will take as much as 3% stake within the EV unit Mahindra Electrical Car Restricted.

The corporate stated it expects EVs to make up between 20% and 30% of its whole SUV gross sales by 2027.

India’s EV market “will cross gross sales of 10 million items by 2030, with an general adoption price of greater than 30% throughout totally different automobile courses,” in response to a report final yr by administration consulting agency Arthur Little.

It famous adoption charges remained very low — at the moment round 2% — because of an “absence of ample EV infrastructure.”

Given present international provide chain disruptions and the federal government’s coverage of constructing India self sustaining, the report added, “It is crucial that India creates its personal indigenous options and a supporting home worth chain.”

Shah highlighted that “provide chain clearly is a vital half” for India’s EV market.

“We do have a analysis middle in India that develops a good bit of expertise as effectively,” he stated. “However the auto business expertise is international. To that extent, there’s a dependence equally with semiconductors. And we have seen a few of the challenges in that within the final couple of years.”