UK’s BII may pump $300 million more into India’s EV ecosystem

British International Investment (BII) is weighing investing an additional $300 million in India’s electric vehicles (EV) ecosystem over the next three years, a top executive at the UK’s development finance institution told the Press Trust of India in an interview.

India has “an evolved auto market”, but EV adoption “right now lags the rest of the world”, with overall EV adoption in India at 6%, BII’s MD and head of technology and telecoms, Abhinav Sinha, said in the interview, adding: “We see it quite easily expand, double and more than double quite quickly,” .

In a LinkedIn post referring to a link of the interview, Sinha said he and his colleagues at BII “are hopeful of continuing the pace” of the British institution’s investment in the Indian EV ecosystem, adding that they are seeing considerable traction with BII’s direct and intermediated investments in India.

BII had invested $250 million in Mahindra India’s EV arm alone.

Overall, the firm has invested $300 million in several startups in India, including tech-led startup investor Blume Ventures; early-stage, technology-focused, sector-agnostic investment firm Stellaris Venture Partners; early-stage venture capital firm 3one4 Capital; commercial EV-focused fintech start-up Turno; Gurgaon-based battery tech startup that introduced battery swapping network for two- and three-wheelers Battery Smart Ltd; electric three-wheelers manufacturer Euler Motors and Charge Zone.

Sinha said focus needs to be given to early-stage investments, which tend to be between $5-10 million, while adding that climate remains the highest priority for BII and that EVs will be the largest area to invest in.

“We will continue investing in the manufacturing side, and we will extend that to the components and the financing side. It is a space that will take a lot of investment. We will invest across the entire value chain,” he added.