In late August 2024, Anurag Mehrotra, managing director of JSW MG Motor India, had a little over a week to decide how the company's new Windsor electric vehicle would be priced at launch. His commercial team had recommended selling the car at ₹9.99 lakh by excluding the battery from the purchase price and having buyers rent it by the kilometre at ₹3.50 from one of four lending partners, an arrangement the team called Battery-as-a-Service. No mainstream carmaker had used the structure in India’s four-wheeler market. Tata Motors, which held more than 70 per cent of the segment, had examined the same approach and said publicly that it remained unconvinced of its suitability for passenger vehicles.

Three options were on the table: a full national launch built on the ₹9.99 lakh headline, conventional pricing near ₹13.50 lakh with the battery included, and a pilot confined to a few metros. Each rested on a different reading of what was holding Indian buyers back. Mehrotra’s finance, sales, and dealer teams had raised objections to the rental structure, and roughly half of surveyed non-adopters had named charging access and range anxiety alongside price. The launch date was fixed. Only the pricing model was still open.