aRTICLE | EV: Revolutionising Mobility
Electric Vehicles: Driving India towards sustainable mobility Right from the arrival of the first car in India in 1897 to the latest automobile technology driving transportation, the country has come a long way in moving people and goods. For instance, Delhi has more than 33 lakh cars on its roads, as per the Economic Survey of Delhi 2020-21. No wonder, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis suggested that more than half of the air pollution in Delhi is contributed by vehicular emission. Cities are the major hubs of most of these technologydriven mobility options and, as a result, bear the brunt of its consequences such as pollution, consumption of non-renewable resources, and road congestion. It is high time mobility is made sustainable to lessen its impacts on environment Hitesh Nigam | Reporter
o address these challenges, sustainable development has taken centre stage, and electric vehicles (EVs) present the solution to some major issues. Presently, India has more than 8.7 lakh EVs on its roads and is set to achieve an almost 30 per cent share of private vehicle sales by 2030, as per the statement of Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India. Due to their environment-friendly feature and skyrocketing fuel prices, EVs are quickly becoming the choice of the urban population. A survey by CarDekho, an online auto portal, assessed that 66 per cent of Indians are willing to switch to EVs as they are ecofriendly and don’t require traditional fossil fuels. The path to sustainable mobility has begun but there are some challenges on the way.
Shortcomings in EV adoption
A major challenge to adopting EVs
36 March 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
in India is the lack of charging infrastructure. With the launch of state EV policies in Delhi and other states such as Gujarat, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala, the pace of installing charging infrastructure has increased. Nine cities - Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, account for more than 55 per cent of the total charging stations in the country. Equitable provision of charging infrastructure is necessary to take the country towards sustainable mobility. Another critical roadblock in the mass acceptance of EVs in India is the pricing. For instance, if a middleclass citizen wants a four-wheeler, he can buy a used one for around `2 lakh but for an EV, the cost shoots up to `10 lakhs and above. State governments are trying to plug this loophole with initiatives like subsidies to cut the prices of EVs. The Government of India has also extended its support by allocating `2908 crore to the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME), a central government initiative to accelerate the adoption of EVs. This is three times the fund allocation of the last fiscal year. It will help incentivise the governments to innovate and build the infrastructure for alternate sustainable mobility options.
EV is the future
As per a report by RBSA Advisors, the Indian electric vehicle market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 90 per cent in this decade and will reach the mark of $150 billion by 2030. Presently,
