Future of electric mobility in India

India wants to achieve 30% electric mobility by 2030. To achieve this government of India had taken decisions to ban the two-wheeler and three-wheelers however, this will not happen. But many states have already published their draft electric vehicle policy and some others are notified and are in the implementation stage. Slowly or rapidly but India is witnessing the growth in electric vehicles, especially in electric three-wheelers. So let us discuss the future of electric mobility in India. 

Future of electric mobility in India

Electric vehicles are important for sustainable growth and many initiatives have been taken by the government to enhance the adoption and proliferation of EVs in the country.

India facts

• India is the fastest-growing major economy in the world
• World’s fourth-largest automobile market
• Stable government
• The government aims to “Make in India”
• World’s largest young population
• Manforce/skilled labour

E-mobility targets

• To set-up Japan-India Institutes of manufacturing (JIMS). 
• India-Japan vision, 2025-India will send 300,000 youth to Japan for on-job training for 3-5 years as government’s skill development program.
• Toshiba, Suzuki & Denso will set up India’s 1st Lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Gujarat.
• Investments across the value chain from batteries to smart charging to Electric Vehicle manufacturing.

Indian EV market

The Indian EV market is dominated by e-rickshaws and two-wheelers. However, there is a huge capacity of the market to grow in the near future. In coming years two-wheelers are expected to be one of the early adopters of electrification apart from the e-rickshaws in India as it can be utilised and mostly used category.

Two-wheelers segment is the largest segment in India, in FY17 80% (17.6 million units) of Indian automotive sales are of two-wheelers. It has a great opportunity to promote the use of EVs in India.

The sales of electric two-wheelers had already shown its potential in 2011-12 with 90,000 units sales however due to the withdrawal of the subsidies by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE), the sales have come down to only 25,000 units in 2016. However, rising startups are likely to accelerate the adoption of electric two-wheelers.

Electric two-wheeler segment

Electric two-wheeler segment growth can be seen in the coming future if proper facilities are provided to the people such as 

• Sufficient public charging stations
• Easy charging with a standard residential or workplace plug point
• Intra-city travels with a maximum range of around 100-150 km per day on a single charge.
• In-expensive, affordable manufacture of electric vehicles. 

Electric three-wheelers segment

Electric three-wheelers are already leading the sales in the EV market in India. A mild push is just what it needs to set a nationwide adoption of electric three-wheelers.

It has developed as the biggest three-wheeler market with total sales of 0.6 million units in FY 17 and will develop to 1 million units by FY2025.

According to the reports of Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), a lobbying body for electric vehicles, there is 21 per cent increase in the growth of the sales of electric three-wheeler in the year 2018-19 to 630,000 as against 520,000 sold in 2017-2018. 

Whereas the sales of petrol, diesel and CNG powered passenger three-wheelers increased by just 10.6 per cent to 5,72,400 units in 2018 when compared to 517,400 units sold in 2017-18.

Electric three-wheelers are used as last-mile connectivity. It can play a huge role in electrifying India if these things should be taken into consideration such as

• Safety and prototype tests mandatory
• Integrate e-rickshaws in the city-based mobility plans
• Define the area of operation, ascertain limit to the maximum number of e-rickshaws per zone
• provide designated parking places as well as charging facilities
• Relax the rate of interest on loans from various financial institutions

Commercial vehicles segment 

More than half of the population in India make use of public transportation for their everyday commutes. The intra-city bus segment is more market-ready than any others as it provides the shortest trips, route buses. It can also be charged easily at bus depots.

As India is already running some e-buses by state-run transport units (SRTUs) in Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh, Bengaluru, Telangana, etc.

To develop this segment

• The government will work with automakers to reduce the battery size of intra-city buses from 300 kWh to 50kWh as it costs high if the battery pack is bigger.
• For large-scale fleets sustainable, efforts to be made by applying the city-based pilot in smart cities by installing charging points at major bus depots and swapping stations must also be installed simultaneously.
• Few State governments are also into rolling out the e-bus tenders, 10 cities.
• As good carrier segment is used only by the selected people, this segment can also be expected to the 100% electric adoption.

Private vehicles

India is the fifth largest car market in the world with more than 3.0 million cars sold in FY17. This segment can also be developed in India.

However, car sales have been very low so far due to the high cost, range anxiety, lack of much models, etc. If the cost, range and charging infrastructure issues is solved then the segment can be developed. 

• Here, the early adopters are expected to be the corporate fleets.
• Government fleets are already into implementing of deploying 20,000 EVs by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).
• Tenders help to provide scale to EVs.
• Cab aggregators/fleets as EVs are low running cost vehicles.
• Private consumers/individuals are likely to come at last for the adoption of EVs.

If these are followed, hope we can achieve the goals set by the government. 

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