India, the most evolving market, is witnessing rapid urbanization, leading to increase in demand for basic services including housing, water, sanitation and transport. Transportation in India has never been very smooth. Due to lack of good public transport facility, registered motor vehicles in India increased from 55 million in 2001 to 192 million in 2015. This is resulting in increased CO2 (the major green house gas) level in the atmosphere which can easily be experienced in the cities. According to WHO, 90% of the world population breathe polluted air. If the world wants to breathe fresh air, it surely has to make a shift to electric mobility.
But for India to be an EV-lised (EV=Electric Vehicle) nation, it has a long way to go in a very short period. There are very few electric cars out there in the market, that too with higher prices compared to their petrol/diesel competitors, the charging infrastructure is only in its infancy and people are not rich enough to afford costlier electric cars. But the government is planning to change it all. And the private sectors are working just accordingly.
India plans to ensure 30 per cent of all vehicles on the road to be electric by 2030, for which, the government started Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme in 2015, with a total outlay of Rs 895 crore. FAME has aims to support 1 million electric two wheelers, 1/2 million three-wheelers, 55,000 four-wheelers and 7,000 buses, setting up charging infrastructure of about 2,700 charging stations in metros, other million-plus cities, smart cities and cities of hilly states. This scheme has entered its 2nd phase with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore. The plan is to ensure availability of at least one charging station in a grid of 3 square km. And for highways, charging stations will be available on both sides of the road at an interval of 25 km each. If this happens, the capital city has probabilities of recovering from the air pollution it is suffering from.
But it is not the central government alone that can make all the change. The state governments have to play better roles in this case. Some local/state governments like the Delhi government are putting good efforts to enhance the use of EVs in India. Delhi is India's most polluted city and the Delhi Government recently approved 1000 Electric buses to be used in
Delhi’s public transport system to solve the issue. Alongside, Blu-Smart mobility launched all-electric cab service in Delhi with a fleet of 70 Mahindra eVerito cars and it also aims to set up charging stations within every five kilometer radius. The company is also introducing Tata Tigor electric and has plans for Nissan Leaf, BMW i3 and Tesla 3.
And Bharat Heavy Electricals is now executing commercial orders for installation of DC chargers across locations in the country. It also plans to get into the manufacturing of EV chargers, electric buses and related components as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative. Japanese auto major Nissan Motor Company has received an Indian patent for its wireless charging technology for electric vehicles which might be used for building the charging station infrastructure.
India has some big petroleum companies with large network of fuel stations. It is both their responsibility and opportunity to expand their business model into a charging infrastructure for electric cars, buses and trucks.
And Hindustan Petroleum is already tying up with Tata Power to create the infrastructure of charging stations across its networks. Another business giant, Indian Oil Corporation has partnered with clean energy firm Fortum India for EV charging stations to start with Nagpur, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Delhi. Alongside National Aluminium Company is planning a production line to fulfill the demand for lithium ion cells and is acquiring license from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for transfer of the technology. India will save huge on imports, as it imported lithium ion batteries worth $150 million in 2017.
By one estimate, the size of the EV market in 2030 would be Rs 42,000 crore. Hence, significant investment is being mobilised, in the private sector, too, to manufacture and install EV supply equipment infrastructure. This includes charging and battery swapping technologies. The major EV maker of India, Mahindra & Mahindra announced the deployment of 50 Electric Vehicles (EVs) to Uber to provide zero emission mobility. The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has made investment in the local xEV supply chain and is setting up an EV battery plant in Gujarat.
The 'FAME 2' is believed to enhance local manufacturing of EV components, including the battery packs, power electronics, and electric motors to be made in India for rest of the world.,
Indian car manufacturers like Reva Electric Car Company (RECC), and cab service network provider
Ola are working on making electric cars more common over the next two decades. Ola raised some funding of $300 million from Kia and Hyundai as part of a plan to develop electric vehicles. Around $12 million was raised by Ather Energy from Tiger Global in 2015. And in 2018, Ather Energy launched its charging infrastructure service (Ather Grid) in Bangalore and made open to all electric vehicles. The other investments being, $65 million raised by Twenty Two Motors from Kwang Yang Motor, $19 million into Ather Energy by Hero MotoCorp.
Porsche AG, the luxury sports car brand of Volkswagen AG, will launch its first electric car, the Taycan, by March 2020 in India. So, presence and plans of large players like Porsche AG shows the potential of the Indian EV market.
In India electricity is mainly produced by burning coal, which produces a great amount of greenhouse emissions. With the introduction of EVs and Charging Infrastructure, the electricity demand will increase further and the whole point of introducing EVs to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions would be ineffective, if all this electricity is produced by burning coal. Moreover, India’s Distribution companies hold debts and are unable to suffice the energy requirement of the whole country adequately. If we were to bring in EVs into this equation, the sudden increase in electricity requirement would put extra load on these companies. Moreover, there are many factors that would go into deciding the pricing of the electricity as well as the demand on the grid.