Electric vehicles trends in India

Electric vehicles have attracted the attention of India’s policy makers as clean technology alternatives due to their multiple advantages like higher efficiency and lower air pollution in short to medium term and reduced CO2 emissions. Read the complete article to know more about electric vehicles trends in India. 

Market overview

India is the fifth-largest auto market with 3.49 million units combined sold in the passenger and commercial vehicles categories. It was the seventh-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in 2019.The Indian Electric Vehicle Market was valued at USD 5 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 47 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of above 44% during the forecast period (2021-2026).

The global electric vehicle market size was USD 246.70 billion in 2020.The global electric vehicle market was valued at $162.34 billion in 2019, and is projected to reach $802.81 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 22.6%.

According to an independent study by CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF), the EV market in India will be a US$206 billion opportunity by 2030 if India maintains steady progress to meet its ambitious 2030 target. It needs an investment of over US$180 billion in vehicle production and charging infrastructure.

The Indian electric vehicle market has been impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic because of the supply chain disruptions and stoppage of manufacturing units due to lockdown restrictions in India. However electric vehicles market is still in its nascent stage in India but it is expected to grow rapidly during the forecast period due to various government initiatives and policies and the EV big players and the Startups. 

Electric vehicle market

Vehicle Type and Power Source

According to the Mordor Intelligence, the Indian Electric Vehicle Market is segmented by Vehicle Type and Power Source. In the Vehicle Type market is segmented into passenger cars, commercial vehicles and two and three-wheelers. The Power Source Type market is segmented into battery electric vehicle, plug-in electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle.

Key market trends

India is making hard efforts to electrify the buses like the China, it has the largest electric bus fleet in the world. Many state governments have already started procuring electric buses from Chinese and local electric bus manufacturers.

Electric buses

The Union Transport minister inaugurated India’s first inter-city electric bus service in February 2020. The Mitra Mobility Solution manufactured these buses with a range of 300 km on a full charge.

India leading Foton PMI in 2019 was planning to invest around INR 500 crore in a joint venture with Beiqi Foton Motor Co. of China to manufacture electric buses in India. It has already given five electric buses to one of the airlines for internal operations.

BEST

In October 2021, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) had announced that it will have around 50% of its buses to become Electric Vehicles by mid-2023 said Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray.

The Minister told about the signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Women4Climate, Cities4Forests and Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI) beneath Mumbai’s Climate Action Plan (MCAP).

“We will have 1,900 electric buses in Mumbai by mid-2023. Also, 200 double-decker buses will be procured. The entire bus fleet will be turned to electric vehicles. We are also working on a renewable source of electricity,” stated Thackeray.

The BEST in 2020 had announced that it is all set to hire 300 electric buses under the central government’s FAME-2 scheme. BEST in its contract for wet-leasing 300 electri

buses urged the operator to give preference to woman drivers. The BEST’s fleet is strengthening its fleet by adding 300 electric buses.

The BEST agreed for the contract for wet-leasing 140 AC single-decker buses and 160 AC minibuses under the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) scheme of the central government which will provide Rs 45 lakh for the minibuses and Rs 55 lakh for the single-decker buses.

In 2019, Uddhav Thackeray, the chief of Shiv Sena introduced 10 new electric buses which were enlisted into the fleet of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking.

BYD

In October, the BYD Company Ltd the world’s leading electric bus manufacturer has announced that it has sold 68,018 battery-electric buses worldwide which helps to eliminate 114,947,040 tons of CO2 emissions, 1,836,432 cars worth of emissions, 80,160 tons of nitrogen oxide, 23,805,600 lbs. of diesel particulate matter according to the transportation govt calculations.

Opibus

Recently in international market, Opibus an African electric mobility company has announced that it has closed on a round of equity and grant fundraising totaling $7.5 million in pre-series A round.

As per the company, this is the largest amount that is raised by an electric mobility company in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. The funding raised by the company will be used to scale its operations in electric motorcycle and bus manufacturing in Africa.

The Swedish-Kenyan company raised $5 million in equity and $2.5 million in grants in a round led by Silicon Valley fund At One Ventures, backed by Factor Ventures and pan-African VC firm Ambo Ventures from the angel investors.

Electric two-wheelers

India is a home to two-wheelers however, the two-wheeler sales in India saw a decrease from the previous years to 15.12 million units in financial year 2021.

The EV industry is transformed a lot even the industry is not yet in a fully developed stage. India has witnessed electric vehicles sales three times in the first half of the ongoing fiscal.

In the first half of FY22, EV sales have more than tripled to 1.18 lakh units which include 58,264 electric two-wheelers and 59,808 three-wheelers and the sales of ICE cars has lowered.

India sold 1.18 lakh EVs

According to the Centre for Energy Finance at Council on Energy, Environment and Water at Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF) until September, electric two-wheeler sales stood at 58,264 units and three-wheelers at 59,808 units. India has already sold 1.18 lakh EVs which is said to be 90% of the total sales last FY.

Around 1.5 lakh vehicles registered including 7,869 electric vehicles, 6,857 CNG vehicles, 7,257 vehicles run on both CNG and petrol and 93,091 vehicles that run on petrol and diesel.

Nearly 23,000 electric vehicles were registered in Delhi from a period of August to October. The registered vehicles include 5,246 two-wheelers and 10,997 e-rickshaws. From July to September, 422 electric cars and four electric buses were registered. In the August-October period, the numbers grew to 1,415 electric cars and 30 buses.

Fuel prices boosted sales of electric two-wheelers

The rise in fuel prices has boosted the sales of the electric two-wheelers as consumers are looking for alternatives.

If we take an example from July 2021, Maharashtra from December 2020 to March 2021, registrations for high speed E2Ws increased by 94.16% and in the same period, registrations for ICE 2-wheelers declined by 18.4%.

The rise in the petrol prices increases from INR 89.16/litre to a high of INR 97.57/litre in the last 3 months as of July 30, 2021, it was Rs 107.83 (per Litre) in Mumbai, Rs. 105.83 in Hyderabad, Rs 102.49 in Chennai and Rs 102.08 in Kolkata and New Delhi it was costing Rs 101.84.

There were at least 25-30 cities where petrol price had crossed to Rs 100 per litre. Similar is with diesel prices too such as Rs 97.45, Rs.94.39, Rs 93.02 was in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

If we take the example of Mumbai petrol price Rs 107.83 (per litre)X 365 days=Rs.39,357.95 (for one year). That was the calculation for only 1 litre and if you use more than one litre a day then you need to spend more money on petrol. For example, if you use 2 litres a day, then the calculation will go on as Rs 215.66 X 365= Rs.78,715.9.

FAME-II 

The Department of Heavy Industries has announced incentives for electric two-wheelers in India. The Center in its notification had announced the amendments made in the FAME-II (faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles).

As per the Gazette notification issued by the government, the incentive for electric two-wheelers has been increased to ₹15,000 per kWh, up by ₹5,000 per kWh from the earlier subsidy rate. Earlier the subsidy rate for electric two-wheelers was Rs 10,000/kWh and now it is Rs 15,000/kWh.

This step from the Indian government will definitely bring massive change and increase in the adoption of electric vehicles. It will also help India to achieve the target of making India an electric vehicle country by 2030. Currently, electric vehicles are much costlier than ICE vehicles. But with the reduction of the prices and adding up the incentives will directly help the customers to buy an electric two-wheeler at some reduced price.

Bharat Stage V (BSV) to BSVI

The government is taking strict actions to curb the emission in the country. the jump from Bharat Stage V (BSV) to BSVI emission standards is expected to benefit the Indian electric scooter and motorcycle market, by raising the prices of petrol-driven two-wheelers by 7-15%. From 1st April 2020 onward, automakers are only allowed to sell BSVI-compliant vehicles in India this is again a push towards the electric variants.

The EV startups and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are also taking initiatives for the adoption of electric vehicles in India.

• Ather Energy Pvt Ltd announced to build a 400,000-sq-ft factory in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. It has a an annual output of 1 lakh units and its current manufacturing plant is in Bengaluru that has a capacity of 25,000 units.
• Okinawa AutoTech Pvt Ltd invested USD 28.4 million (INR 200 crore) for its second manufacturing plant in May 2019.
• Godawari E-mobility Pvt Ltd plans to invest up to Rs 150 crore by 2023 to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing unit at Raipur and also in South and West India.
• Euler Motors launched its first electric three-wheeler cargo HiLoad in the Indian market.
• Gulf Oil Lubricants India has announced the launch of its e-fluids for hybrid and electric passenger vehicles in India.
• Xcel Energy from the United States which provides 3.3 million electricity customers has made an announcement that it planned to help to put 1.5 million electric cars on the road by 2030.
• Gozero Mobility an electric bike manufacturer has launched Skelling Lite an electric bike that is specially designed for beginners.

Governments supporting electric vehicles 

Thirteen states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Gujarat and West Bengal have approved/notified dedicated electric vehicles (EV) policies to promote the adoption of electric vehicles.

KSRTC

The electric vehicles are getting a great support from the various governments such as the Kerala Transport Minister Antony Raju said that KSRTC will reduce bus fares. The passengers can carry electric bikes and scooters and bicycles in Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses.

The Kerala government had announced that it has introduced 1 million EVs by 2022. It targets 10 million EVs on roads. The newly registered private EVs will get a tax refund. To develop e-mobility Rs 12 crore has been given as ‘e-mobility fund,’ which is used for the tax subsidy to 10,000 electric autos.

PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme

The Union Cabinet has approved a revised PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme for the auto industry and the auto component industry with a budgetary outlay of Rs. 26,058 Cr for five years. It has been approved to promote the manufacturing of electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in India.

The policy will boost to manufacture of electric vehicles as well as helps in generating over 7.6 lakh job opportunities. The PLI scheme will incentivize the emergence of advanced automotive technologies’ global supply chain in India. The PLI scheme will bring fresh investments of over Rs 42,500 crore in five years and an incremental production of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore.

e-Mobility Programme

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, through Convergence Energy Services Limited is implementing an e-Mobility Programme with the objective to reduce dependence on oil imports & to provide an impetus for domestic electric vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, service providers, etc. to gain efficiencies of scale and drive down costs, create local manufacturing facilities, grow technical competencies for the long-term growth of the electric vehicle (EV) industry in India and to enable Indian EV manufacturers to emerge as major global players.

If you are an EV manufacturer or EV Dealer or EV Supporter who want to share news related to electric vehicles on our website, please send an email to crm@electricvehicles.in

For the latest electric vehicles news, follow electricvehicles. in on Twitter, Instagram,Facebook and our YouTube Channels English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil