Incentives for EVs: Push in the right direction by Government. Excerpts of an interview with Mr Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto published on 11th July on the CNBC website.

Dated: 11th July 2019

• Views on incentives for promoting electric vehicles (EVs): One must be cautious as incentives that come today can go just as easily tomorrow. Manufacturers or entrepreneurs must be fixated on delivering a sustainable solution. EVs are becoming an attractive option considering the urban pollution and in that sense, the government’s push in the direction is a good idea.
• Incentives provided in the budget for EVs are significant. GST at 5% for EVs compared to 28% for IC engines, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) benefit of Rs 10,000 per kw and some of the reductions in the import duties will help. The government has put its best foot forward in offering a very significant package to those who are interested in putting out good quality electric vehicles. FAME benefit will be for those who are going to make EVs that meet certain quality standards, certain minimum standards in terms of various performance parameters.
• The positive side of the equation is the Government has been generous with the incentives and now it is up to the manufacturers to respond by leveraging this to put products into the market place. The negative is the draft notification that suggests that all three-wheelers and most two-wheeler should become electric by banning internal combustion (IC) engine scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers. These two things should not be coupled in this manner that in order to encourage or promote one thing you have to artificially bury another thing which is world-class.
• Every member of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) is developing EVs and everyone will be in the market with their own EVs in the very near future, in the next 12 months or less.
• It should be a phased transition to EVs as making 25 million two-wheelers and three-wheelers is not a switch that can be switched on or off overnight. The Government might be overestimating what can be done in the immediate term and underestimating what can be done in a medium-term future like 10-years.
• Bajaj Auto is working toward launching EVs (both 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers) just before implementation of BS-VI norms in April 2020. It would be a good time for EVs to make their way to market because people will be very sensitive to the subject of the environment at that time and current vehicles will get much more expensive because of BS-VI norms.
• Bajaj Auto is part of an industry that is experiencing great difficulty in terms of demand. Nobody knows exactly why the demand is low, nobody knows how this can be resolved or by when things will settle. Everybody is also concerned with what will happen when the next step of BS-VI comes into place and prices go up even further. These are very volatile, very uncertain, very difficult times where one has to just stay the course and wait it out.

Consensus Estimate (Source: www.marketscreener.com) 
• The stock price of Bajaj Auto is Rs 2,740/- as of close price of 11th July 2019 and trades at 15x / 13x the consensus EPS for FY 20E/21E EPS of Rs 186/214 respectively. 
• Consensus target price is Rs 2,831/- valued at 13x FY21E EPS of Rs 214.