EV Charging Infrastructure Market in India, Challenges and Solutions The 2010’s have seen the rise of the Electric Car as a force to be reckoned with in the automobile industry across the world. Large technological change driving Battery Performance, fall in prices of battery packs driving a cheaper EV and a market leading company driven by a technological leader with a mass following – Tesla and Elon Musk, have been some of the key factors behind this charge by EV’s in the industry. By 2020, a small set of modern EV’s have entered the Indian 4 wheeler market as well and we are slowly seeing the established trends in the West entering the Indian market. Exciting new entries in the 2 wheeler EV space are also making the Indian market an exciting one to watch.
While pollution has always been an alarming issue in all the major and densely populated cities and towns of India – with the terrible air quality constantly coming into focus in the winter months across the North Indian plains, the real drive towards EV vehicles (both 2&4 wheelers) will be an economic one. India has always spenta massive amount of money on the import of crude oil from overseas and this import along with the associated forex costs and the huge state taxes have meant that India has one of the highest rates for automotive fuel in the world. Operating costs of EV’s today are easily 1/5 to 1/8 of what it costs to run a similar ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) automobile. With the introduction of a new wave of EV vehicles in the Indian market, we will not only see a gradual move towards EV adoption and a corresponding reduction in pollution levels – lowering of battery costs (driven by technology advances and greater demand) will reduce the current gap in the capital costs of buying an EV. The Indian government has been reasonably proactive with the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of EV) scheme by the union government and various state policies including waiver of road tax and reduction in GST rates – a lot of thought and some concrete policies need to established for one of the critical challenges in mainstreaming EV’s – the challenge of Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles.
Challenges of EV Charging Infrastructure Market in India India today has a robust network of fuel stations (numbering over 70000) catering to ICE vehicles. They span the length and breadth of the country and anyone travelling anywhere does not need to fear being stranded without fuel.
The paradigm of “fuel” in the context of EV’s is different – it refers to the “Charge left in your battery”. In today’s world of smart phones, we are all familiar with the fear of running out of charge, and we always have spare chargers kept everywhere – one in the bag, one in a car and one at the office and home. To supplement the fear of not finding a power outlet, we also carry “Power Banks” or energy capsules in our bag. In a similar way – an EV is also suspeptible to running out of “Charge” and hence we need infrastructure to allow us to charge “On the Go”. A short analysis of where people charge their electric vehicles in more mature markets in the West suggest: Over 80% of charging is “Captive” – being done at the vehicle owners’ home or residence; with the balance required for road trips and cross city travel requiring top ups at different locations. Read more: https://semaconnect.in/2021/05/ev-charging-infrastructuremarket-in-india-challenges-and-solutions/