Luxury carmaker Audi has joined Skoda and Volkswagen in signalling that their parent, the Volkswagen Group, is yet to finalise its electric vehicle (EV) strategy for India, highlighting the German automaker’s cautious approach even as rivals scale up EV bets in the country.
In an interview with Mint, Audi India’s top executives said that the company has exhausted its current resource allocation for the EV business and is in discussions with its headquarters for the next phase, echoing earlier comments from Skoda and Volkswagen India leadership, and leaving the Wolfsburg-based Volkswagen Group among the few major foreign carmakers without a clear EV roadmap for the country.
Audi recalibrates, rivals move ahead
This is in contrast with other foreign luxury car makers like Mercedes and BMW and mass-market players like Renault, Honda, Hyundai, VinFast and Suzuki that have announced their EV plans for India and committed to scale their sales over the next few years.
“We are not selling an electric car because we have been selling it for the last 3-4 years. The quota that was allocated to us, the cars that we were selling got over,” Balbir Singh Dhillon, brand director at Audi India, told Mint ahead of its latest car launch in the national capital.
“We are in the process of defining what next model that we bring in, at what point in time, at what price point,” Dhillon said, adding that the company would publicly announce its plans soon and remains optimistic about the opportunity in the country’s EV market.
Dhillon’s comments echo statements from the brand head of Skoda as well as the Volkswagen Group head in India over the past two months. In India, Volkswagen Group operates six distinct brands – Volkswagen Cars, Skoda, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi and Bentley. Together, they sold about 110,000 cars in India in 2025, a growth of 36% over the previous year.
Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility, said that the group needs to lay out its strategy for diversifying powertrain options as competition is intensifying in the market.
“You need to have a diversified portfolio of powertrains, including EVs, which will eventually help you compete with other carmakers. On EVs, it looks like the group is still waiting for policy direction to become clear and the market evolve before committing models,” he said.
“Considering the decarbonisation goals of the industry, the future of mobility is clearly electric, and our Group’s e-mobility roadmap reflects that direction. The VW Group is the market leader in Europe and is bringing more electric products for the future,” a spokesperson for Skoda Auto Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd told Mint. “India’s electrification transition will be shaped by customer demand, infrastructure readiness, product availability, and technology advancements. We believe that by the end of the decade, the share of electrified vehicles in the Indian market could reach a significant level, and we are aligning our product strategy accordingly.”
Focus on alternative powertrains
The group has introduced EV models only through luxury carmakers Porsche and Audi, which collectively registered just about 116 electric vehicles in calendar year 2025, as against total 177,000 EV sales during the year, according to the government’s Vahan portal. Electric vehicle sales in India rose 77% last year, and accounted for 4% of the total sales.
Volkswagen Group’s leading India arm, Skoda Auto, has also mentioned that the company is evaluating multiple powertrains before deciding its final strategy.
“Five years ago, it was widely assumed that electrification was the only way forward, but that is no longer the case—not just in India, but globally. These are shifting trends that need to be factored in when product plans are drawn up,” Skoda Auto’s brand director Ashish Gupta told Mint in an interview during the launch of Kushaq facelift in January.
“We are currently evaluating which strategy to pursue. Alternative fuels such as flex fuel and CNG clearly fit into our plans. In the Kylaq’s segment, for instance, nearly 20% to 25% of vehicles run on CNG, which is something we are actively considering,” he added.
Volkswagen Group India head, Piyush Arora, also told Mint on the sidelines of the Kushaq launch in January that the group has multiple options at its disposal.
“We are already working on that to be able to have a multi-pronged strategy for making our present generation engines more efficient. Of course, as you see that E20 has stabilized and there are opportunities for flex fuel which are being discussed, there are opportunities which can come with CNG options and of course electrification,” Arora said, without detailing its plans.
Future outlook
While the German carmaker follows a cautious approach in India, it overtook Tesla to become the largest seller of electric vehicles in Europe on the back of its expanding EV lineup in the region.
The carmaker’s cautious commentary comes at a time when there have been speculations about a potential partnership with other carmakers, including JSW group, for development of electric vehicles.
“Overall approach of Volkswagen Group in their different market is to utilise the maximum opportunities which come, and as part of those evaluation, if there are opportunities to do something with the partner, that, of course, is evaluated and duly considered if it is a win-win possibility,” Arora said.
The spotlight on carmakers’ EV plans comes at a time when the industry globally has seen more than $60 billion in write-offs, as companies such as General Motors, Stellantis, Honda and Ford Motor Company scale back ambitions.
However, carmakers such as Renault and Honda have identified India as one of the key markets for growth in electric vehicles.
French Renault, unveiling its global vehicle strategy last week, said India is witnessing high growth due to rising electrification and SUV sales.
“India will become a global production and supply hub for the brand, serving its domestic market as well as many other countries. Between now and 2030, four new models will be designed and assembled in India, including 100% electric and full hybrid cars.”