The year is 2035. Planet Earth is raving about a new VSS [virtual show series] on Getclix called “Carcos”. It is about how the US was flooded with illegal and illicit Chinese EVs coming through the border with…Mexico [you guessed right]! Due to the high import tariffs imposed on these pesty little things out to sting true-blue American brands, they went back to the oldest profession in the galaxy, “Have border, will infiltrate”.

Given that the world had moved on to AI as the biggest drug, warlords southwards from Mexico were looking for the next biggest thing. Bingo! The Chinese EV. The Americans wanted them but the American government had made them expensive. In the crusade of democratising mobility once again, from mid-2025 there was this huge movement of tourists from Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and more. Thousands wanted to visit Disneyland, Hollywood, Lake Michigan, Palo Alto, ICE Museum, Orange Dome and more. It was awesome! The cash registers were ringing like never before. And, how were these “legal aliens” coming in? In Chinese EVs of course.

Homeland Security, now completely automated as all humans were sacked long back, could not identify a single alien as there were no retina records. Damn! These ‘people’ would drive in to a designated touristy place,
park their cars and then take the train or bus back home. Nobody smelt a racoon. Using close-loop apps, the enterprising American customers would unlock the vehicles, transfer the money online using, of all things, the Indian RuPay and drive off. Neat!

The most popular brands were “TAD” [The American Dream] and, hold on… “Musk”! Yup, they named one after him. Though one could choose from options like Lavender and Ocean, this one went like a whiff. A similar operation in the UK, albeit at a smaller scale, and run by us Indians, saw brands like “Adam” and “Smith” being lapped up. Talk about wealth creation!

The authorities were totally confounded. Where were these Chinese EVs coming in from? There were no records. Zilch. Each vehicle seemed to have all the digital records in order. Yet there was no money from the ports. The robots and bots across the country were up in…well, arms.

El Carpo, Carobar and the entire Elletri Cartel were having a terrific time till a McKinsey report came out wherein on the 117 th slide they recommended that as RuPay had become a major pipeline accounting for 18.23% of all transactions, the RuPay CEO could be considered as the next Fed Chief. That led to social media in India going ballistic about how India had finally conquered the US and Lady Liberty should be draped in a Banarasi saree and hold a proper “mashaal”. That was opening a can of foie gras! And the rest, as the historians say, is that trade tariffs are history.

Hope you enjoyed this little diversion. Back to today. There is a lot of chatter about the sceptre of “tariffs” being swash-buckled by Mr. Trump. If we allow the dust of the furore over being forced to slash import duties on American vehicles to settle down and think rationally, it is not such a bad idea after all.

If India does slash the duties for CBUs and SKDs, it will have to do so for all imports and not just the ones from the US. This implies that automakers currently with fringe market shares will see the chance to sell their larger portfolio in India at competitive price bands without having to manufacture them here. This could definitely apply to their EV offerings to start with.

This will be the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons. If these global automakers do not have to bother with investments in manufacturing, they could very well focus on the service network. And the edge the domestic brands enjoy in being better in service reach, depth and delivery will gradually evaporate, creating a more level playing field for all.

That will finally force the government to cut the GST on passenger vehicles. That will be the only way to keep local manufacturing alive and thriving. If one is to preserve the pricing advantage of a manufacturer over an importer or assembler, the GST has to be brough tdown to at the most 12% for all automobiles with the entry level offerings being only at 5%.

That will not only help promote increased manufacturing and make schemes like PLI actually come alive, but also make the personal automobile much more affordable to all segments of buyers, right from one exploring his / her first mode of personal transport in a scooter or motorcycle or car to the one wanting to upgrade to something more aspirational.

What the industry could not convince the government in doing, Mr. Trump could very well do in one fell swoop of his tariff sword. The policy makers have to realise that India, to be a nation truly on the move, has to either make personal mobility really cheap to boost growth or invest so much in multi-modal public transport that we look away from independent solutions. With the worrying trend of bus penetration dropping over the last couple of years, sustainable nationwide public transport is still a dream. Personal transport solutions have to fill in till then.

The government will earn much more through an explosion of volumes while encouraging the automotive ecosystem to become healthier. Direct and indirect employment will automatically rise. SIAM would not have to issue warnings of a less than 2% growth any more. Let us take the bull in the China shop [only a proverb, mind you] not just by its horns but take a gamble to ride it.

So, instead of fretting over Mr. Trump’s “threat”, turn it into an opportunity of relooking our own lop-sided taxation policy and finally recognise that an entry level motorcycle or scooter or car is not a luxury item but a crucial gear in holistic and inclusive economic growth.