What’s Driving The Son Of India’s Richest Woman To Pour Billions Into EVs?

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of India’s Richest 2024. See the full list here.

Sajjan Jindal, the son of India’s richest woman, Savitri Jindal, is steering his Mumbai-based steel-and-energy giant JSW Group into making cars. In March, he bought 35% of MG Motor India from China’s SAIC Motor for an undisclosed amount.

“When the transition [to EVs] started happening…we felt the playing field was becoming a lot more even.”

Parth Jindal, son of Sajjan and a director of the renamed JSW MG Motor, is especially bullish on the electric vehicle market as India promotes the industry to reduce its dependence on imported crude oil. “When the transition[to EVs] started happening…we felt the playing field was becoming a lot more even, because for an established car player to get into EVs or a new player…it’s almost one and the same thing,” he says. (SAIC retains 49% in the joint venture while Singapore-based private equity firm Everstone Capital holds 8%; employees, 5%; and MG car dealers, 3%.)

JSW Group is injecting roughly $1.8 billion into JSW MG Motor to stoke production capacity to 300,000 units a year by 2026 and 1 million by 2030, compared with 100,000 units currently. The joint venture has a sole factory in the state of Gujarat, but plans to build another one nearby as it aims to launch a new model every three to six months. To reduce costs, the joint venture will buy more local parts, including materials from JSW Group.

In March, India lowered import duties on certain EVs made by carmakers that agree to invest at least $500 million and start manufacturing within three years. The government “must push auto majors to bring their technology into our country,” Parth says. “That is the only way we’ll be able to achieve [India’s] objectives of transitioning from engines to EVs.”

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, domestic passenger car sales jumped 8% in the year ended March 31 to 4.2 million units, with EVs accounting for 2% of the total. Tata Motors dominated the EV market in the first quarter of 2024, with a 67% share, while billionaire Anand Mahindra’s firm Mahindra & Mahindra and JSW MG Motor were in second and third place, respectively, with 13% each, according to Singapore-based research firm Canalys. JSW MG Motor has three EV models: the ZS SUV, the Comet small car, and the recently launched midsize Windsor crossover utility vehicle.

Parth predicts passenger car sales will balloon 67% to 7 million vehicles by 2030, with EV sales surging to between 2 million and 2.5 million units. “We would like to be selling 600,000 vehicles by 2030,” he says, of which 75% will be EVs. He expects JSW MG Motor to post a 10% rise in revenue to nearly $1.5 billion in the year to March 31, 2025, and grow tenfold thereafter to $15 billion in fiscal 2030. He says it will list in three to five years and while it has not yet set a funding target, “auto companies [in India] are trading anywhere between two-to-three times revenue, so that would be our aim.”