An abridged, narrative version of the latest episode of Two by Two, The Ken’s premium weekly business podcast Subscribe here
Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Before we get into this week’s edition, I have a small request. One of The Ken’s greatest strengths is our insightful and diverse community of subscribers, and we think it’s only right that we let you help shape future episodes of Two by Two.
To that end, we’re running a short survey today.
Readers of The Nutgraf will likely have read Praveen Gopal Krishnan’s piece this Saturday about why he now prefers travelling outside India to see cricket matches. Have any of you ever done the same? Not just for cricket matches or other sports events, but concerts or stand-up gigs or other live stadium events? How was your experience?
We hope to use the results of today’s survey in a future Two by Two episode, so do let us know. It won’t take longer than a couple of minutes.
As for this week’s episode of Two by Two, are you considering buying a car right now? If you are, I’m sure you’ve noticed you have a pretty panel of choices—one certainly far larger than even a handful of years ago. One reason is the recent profusion of electric models, a fair number of which whiz past us every day.
But it’s also becoming clear that this is not the EV revolution we were promised.
Growth in sales of electric cars have slowed, as my colleague Nathan Narde reported last year, except for a recent bump during the festive season. And slowing adoption isn’t just an Indian phenomenon; 2024 saw sales slow in mature markets too. For instance, Tesla’s sales dipped 1.1% during the year, and other companies have downsized initially massive EV plans.
Two by Two hosts Rohin Dharmakumar and Praveen offered one hypothesis during this week’s podcast for why EVs haven’t taken off as expected in India’s car market—“a narrative collapse”. A flaw in how EVs were sold to customers:
Electric is the future.
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