EV adoption in India | What Went Wrong
Despite the Indian government’s ambitious plan to have 80 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030, the current numbers paint a less encouraging picture. As of December 2022, India had only 1.8 million registered electric vehicles. Even the NITI Aayog projects that by 2030, the figure may only reach 50 million. Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director, Ease of Doing Business | Project Director for National Highways for Electric Vehicles and | President of Charge Point Operators Society of India sheds light on what went wrong in India’s quest for EV adoption.
He said, “India’s transition towards e-mobility has been an ongoing process since 2011 when a charging station was inaugurated during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure. However, this charging station is no longer operational due to failure. Over a decade, from 2011 to 2022, electric mobility has focused on comparing electric cars to their diesel or petrol counterparts. However, the root issue lies not with the vehicles themselves but with the infrastructure that supports them. Many individuals mistakenly drew false comparisons, leading to suboptimal outcomes, and erroneously attributed the problem to infrastructure rather than vehicles. Instead of comparing one vehicle to another, it would have been more appropriate to compare a charging station to a traditional fueling station. This would have taken into account economic factors, technical considerations, financing aspects, utilization, return on investment (ROI), asset management, and diverse revenue sources. This comprehensive comparison should encompass technical specifications, standards, ease of doing business, and associated challenges.”
He further said, “The crucial aspects of comfort, profitability, or sales associated with a specific product or service are not effectively communicated to end users who are responsible for comparisons and evaluations. Consequently, the commercial significance of this ongoing transition is largely overlooked and insufficiently addressed in the current discussion and debate. For instance, when a household transitions from grid power to solar panels with energy storage, it is essential to understand the cost savings and investment requirements involved. Unfortunately, we have not been able to provide clear information on these aspects to fleet operators, individual consumers, or those contemplating a switch to electric vehicles.”
