India’s top carmakers have set an ambitious goal of achieving more than half their sales through electric vehicles, hybrids and CNG-fuelled cars by 2030–a push that will require them to increase the contribution from cleaner vehicles by up to 10 times over the next five years.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Hyundai Motor India Ltd target EVs, hybrid and CNG vehicles to achieve the goal, while Tata Motors is focusing on EVs and CNG, according to their presentations and disclosures to investors. Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd has previously stated that it aims to reach 30% of sales through EVs by 2030, with no stated plan of introducing hybrid and CNG vehicles yet.
EVs made up about 3%, while hybrids constituted 2% of India’s domestic passenger vehicle sales of 4.3 million units in the fiscal ended March 2025. Compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles contributed 19%, with the remaining 76% coming from petrol and diesel-fuelled internal combustion engine vehicles.
The planned shift is driven by stricter fuel efficiency norms about to be finalized and growing demand for cleaner vehicles. Moreover, central and state governments are offering incentives to EV makers, aiding the transition. Carmakers' projections suggest that the share of CNG vehicles is expected to stabilize, and most of the incremental growth will come from the sales of EVs and hybrids.
As India moves closer to stricter emission norms, the penetration of clean-fuel vehicles such as EVs and hybrids will accelerate rapidly, according to Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility. Every technology reaches an inflection point, he said, a stage where adoption triggers a multiplier effect, leading to a surge in sales before the market stabilizes.
“Multiple new launches are either underway or in the pipeline across clean and green fuel segments. EV penetration has already touched 5% this fiscal, marking a global inflection point for BEVs (battery electric vehicles), up from just 2.5% last year,” Gupta said. “With expanding infrastructure and growing consumer confidence, we will soon witness more EV/Hybrids on roads and a steep rise in penetration over the next five years.”
Hybrids and EVs
India’s top two carmakers, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, are betting that the share of hybrids in their portfolio will either be equal to or greater than that of EVs in this transition to cleaner mobility by 2030, even though the government is offering incentives only for battery-powered transport.
Tata Motors is targeting both EVs and CNG vehicles for now, while Mahindra has laid out plans for rapidly scaling up electric vehicles.
Hyundai expects the Indian car market to grow at an annualized rate of 5.2% by 2030. By then, the company’s estimates suggest that the share of EVs in total sales will be 14%, hybrids 14% and CNG at 22%. This means the contribution of EVs in total sales could surge by nearly five times, while that of hybrids could soar by around seven times.
Hyundai Motor Co. president Jose Munoz announced at its India unit’s first investor day on 15 October that the company plans to launch eight hybrid vehicles and five EVS by the financial year 2030.
“We recently changed our strategy from ‘shift to EV only’ to a much more ‘hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EV’,” he said. “This change has happened across automotive companies and not just at Hyundai. We saw that the EV market is not growing as much as we expected, for many reasons, and then hybrids have been growing more.”
In Hyundai’s own portfolio, the share of EVs will grow from 1% in FY25 to 17% in FY30, the share of hybrids will grow from 0% to 16% and that of CNG will grow from 13% to 20%, according to the company’s projections.
These estimates came more than a fortnight after Tata Motors, in a meeting with analysts, laid out its own roadmap for increasing the share of cleaner vehicles.
“In the mid-long term, expect CNG share to increase to 25-30%, 20% EV, 5% diesel and balance petrol," analysts at Yes Securities wrote in a 29 September note, citing the management’s commentary on fuel mix. By 2030, Tata Motors management wants to reach 30% EV penetration in its portfolio.
As of FY25, 12% of Tata Motors’ sales were EVs, while 24% were CNG vehicles. In the next five years, the company plans to launch 30 models, including 7 new and 23 facelifts and model refreshes. At least two of the new nameplaces are expected to be EVs.
Mahindra is expected to introduce seven electric vehicles by 2030. As of FY25, nearly all of the company's sales came from ICE vehicles.
Maruti’s ambitious bet
The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki is targeting 75% of its sales through clean fuel cars by the financial year 2030-31. Of these, 35% will come from CNG, 25% from hybrid vehicles and 15% from EVs.
That suggests it is eyeing an up to 10 times rise in the share of hybrids. As of March, about a third of its domestic sales came from CNG, while hybrids contributed about 2.4% of its overall 1.79 million sales. The company has not yet started selling EVs in the Indian market.
The company is expanding across cleaner options, hybrids, CNG, biofuels like CBG (compressed biogas) and ethanol, efficient internal combustion engines compatible with 20% ethanol blending and even flex fuel vehicles, Hisashi Takeuchi, managing director at Maruti Suzuki, said in a statement to shareholders as part of the annual report.
“This strategy makes cleaner technologies more accessible, empowers customers and helps the Company leverage all possibilities of carbon reduction.”