India’s electric-vehicle market is coming of age, finally. But success will ultimately depend on car makers’ bridging the affordability gap—a tall task in a volatile battery-metals market. This week, Chinese EV heavyweight BYD officially entered the Indian passenger-vehicle market with an electric sport-utility vehicle. It aims by the end of this decade to capture 40% of India’s EV market, now dominated by Tata Motors , with Maruti Suzuki , Volkswagen and Toyota planning to enter in the next few years.

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