German luxury carmaker BMW believes that a reduction in import duties on electric vehicles (EV) for a limited time or a limited number of units will help create demand to support manufacturing of such vehicles in India and bring new technologies quicker to the country according to media reports.

The company, which has been manufacturing locally many of its vehicles sold in India for the last 15 years, considers creating demand as key to localization of manufacturing.

“What we always do is we create demand for a model and then localise it. We believe these new technologies also have the potential to be localized in future. Still, it would help if you created a mass demand for that critical mass (for local manufacturing to be viable),” BMW Group India President and CEO Vikram Pawah media reported.

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The only way to do that, according to him, is to fast track it, create the demand before the infrastructure develops or create the demand which will make the infrastructure.

“Then we can localise by that time these technologies which are mature, and then we can apply it into the country,” he added.

Pawah further said, “For that what we are seeking from the government is a straightforward thing, that yes, let us have some reduction in import duties, but only for a limited time or limited quantities.