According to Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto, the electric vehicles (EVs) company would achieve profitability at a lower volume threshold due to pricing power, a cost-competitive structure, and brand strength. The two-wheeler maker debuted an electric scooter in the fast-growing industry in January 2020, followed by electric three-wheelers in May of this year.

Bajaj Auto has completed two key transitions over the previous 20 years: from a scooter licensee to a motorcycle developer, and from a domestic player to a worldwide powerhouse. Bajaj Auto has proved the capacity to blend change with stability, and growth with profitability, in both of these undertakings.

Bajaj Auto has launched Bajaj 3.0 with the same strategic emphasis and supply chain capabilities that have served us well in the past. As a result, the company has every reason to assume that, in time, we will effectively transition from ICE (internal combustion engine) to EV, notwithstanding any uncertainties that may arise.

Over the last four years, as the company has scaled up our electric Chetak and, more recently, Bajaj Auto three-wheelers, we've been through the 'chips and ships' chaos, inflationary and currency crises, and (yet) consistently delivered the 20% ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation) that has come to be expected of us.

Bajaj Auto's solid cash position reflects the above backdrop and reality, making more external support difficult to justify. In fact, doing so in the face of front- and back-end vagaries ranging from policy and price volatility to evolving technology and cost options would most likely jeopardize the company's EV entity's terminal value.

Finally, the firm's 75-year history loads us with the expectation of constructing, rather than burning, our way into the future, and, in the process, managing someone else's money even more astutely than the corporation handles their own.