Electric vehicles may soon face tough competition from ‘strong hybrid’ segment

Mumbai: Electric vehicles (EVs) have been the stars of the automotive market of late, but they may soon face competition from the ‘strong hybrid’ segment, which is fast picking up pace. Strong hybrid vehicles have an electric motor as well as an internal combustion engine (ICE), which can work together as well as independent of each other.

EV sales jumped by 131% year-on-year during January-July this year, from 25,100 to 58,076 units, but strong hybrid sales outshone, with more than 3,100% growth from 1,467 to 47,124 units. Meanwhile, ICE vehicles saw just 5% growth, albeit for a total of 2.2 million units from 2.1 million in the year-ago period, according to data collated by Jato Dynamics.