BYD revisits plans to build electric cars in India
According to a new report from Autocar Professional, BYD is discussing a manufacturing facility in India with domestic conglomerates Reliance Group and Adani. The local companies have close ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Narendra Modi-led government, and the Chinese automaker likely expects a partnership with one of them to strengthen its chances of securing regulatory approval and streamline its future business in the country.
Rajeev Chauhan, BYD’s Head of Electric Passenger Vehicle Business in India, told Autocar Professional that the company “is keen to start full-scale manufacturing” but did not divulge details about the rumoured partnership with Reliance Group and Adani. Reuters previously reported that Reliance Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Reliance Group, is conducting a cost feasibility study to establish an EV factory with an annual production capacity of approximately 250,000 units initially and the room to scale up to 750,000 units.
Given Reliance Infrastructure’s (and Reliance Group’s) lack of experience in the auto sector, it seemed likely that the company would seek a partnership with a well-established automaker and mainly focus on the manufacturing part. The company is also evaluating a battery plant with an initial capacity of 10 GWh and the potential to scale production to 75 GWh over a decade. Interestingly, Reliance Infrastructure recently hired Sanjay Gopalakrishnan, BYD’s former Senior Vice President of Electric Passenger Vehicle Business in India, in an advisory role for the EV project.
On the product front, BYD plans to launch a facelifted version of the e6 electric compact MPV as the ‘eMax 7’ in India. In the second half of 2025, the company may introduce an electric sub-compact SUV priced from around 2 million Indian rupees (approximately 21,700 euros). This model would compete with two of the country’s blockbuster launches next year: the Hyundai Creta EV and the Maruti Suzuki eVX. Domestic giant Tata Motors also plans to foray into this popular segment with the highly anticipated Tata Sierra.ev by March 2026. BYD is also seeing the rising popularity of hybrid cars in India and may launch plug-in hybrid models by 2026.
Currently, BYD imports the semi-knocked down (SKD) kits of the e6 and the Atto 3 electric compact SUV and assembles them at a factory in Sriperumbudur, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The company also sells the Seal electric mid-size sedan in India but imports the latter as a completely built unit (CBU). The country’s punitive import taxes make these models inaccessible to most consumers.
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