Amid global push for EVs, India quietly beats retreat on electric plan
16/12/2018
new delhi: Electric mobility powered by renewable energy could be key to fighting climate change, the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) in Poland has highlighted.
For India, the world’s third-largest automobile market, electric vehicles (EV) are an imperative. Some 25 million conventional vehicles with internal combustion (IC) engines were sold here in 2017, adding to a 230 million passenger vehicle fleet, which trebled in size from 2001 to 2016. Globally, transport accounts for a quarter of total emissions, and India’s vehicle emissions have contributed to giving the country the worst air quality in the world. By taking 1.24 million lives, air pollution was responsible for one in eight deaths in India in 2017, as IndiaSpend reported on December 7, 2018. Yet, India is likely to have twice as many vehicles on the road by 2040. Having suggested an ambitious plan to go all-electric by 2030, the government has quietly beat a retreat to say it aims to ensure that by 2030, at least 15% of the vehicles in the country are electric. The reversal acknowledges the challenges ahead, and a decision to proceed cautiously. It proposes to do this by providing subsidies and a range of other incentives such as tax breaks, especially to two-wheelers and public transport vehicles such as three-wheelers and buses. A new policy long in the works and reviewed by IndiaSpend seeks to provide clarity on the direction the government aims to steer the industry in, including domestic manufacturing as against import; the kind and extent of charging infrastructure to be set up; and how subsidies and tax incentives will be financed. An electric car emits 25% less CO2--the most common greenhouse gas than a diesel car over its lifetime even in countries with “dirty” (predominantly coal-fired) grids such as India, according to a December 2018 report by the World Bank on electric mobility launched at the COP24. India’s grid, however, is turning green rapidly: Renewables now account for one-fifth of installed power capacity.
India had 448,000 electric vehicles on road as on March 2018, 90% of total sales (475,000 vehicles) being two-wheelers. Some 7,000 are four-wheelers and 150 heavy electric vehicles, such as trucks and buses, as per the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV). There are also some 1.7 million electric three-wheelers, mostly e-rickshaws, with 850,000 of them (48%) having been sold within the last financial year 2017-18 (April 2017-March 2018). Leading EV manufacturers include Hero Eco, Mahindra Reva, Electrotherm, Avon, Lohia, Ampere making a range of electric vehicles--scooters, cars (hybrid and full electric), buses, mini pickup trucks, rickshaws, cycles--available for sale.
In the electric car segment, following the lead of Mahindra Reva, the Indian unit of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd and Maruti Suzuki will launch EVs in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Tata Motors is also looking to enter the EV market in 2019, Mint newspaper reported in June 2018.
A range of businesses are emerging along the supply chain--sourcing or manufacturing raw materials, battery cells, battery packs, integrated vehicles, sales, recharge and services, and so on.
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