Electric Vehicles

ECONOMY/ GOVERNANCE

Topic: General Studies 2,3:

• Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development.
• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Electric Vehicles

Issues

• Electric car sales as a percentage of overall car sales in India is abysmally low at less than 0.2%. 
• Electric scooters fare slightly better at 0.4% of overall two-wheeler sales — a worrying sign despite incentives like reducing GST on electric vehicles to 5%, providing income tax benefits and waiving road tax. 
• There are only 650 charging stations in India.
• The biggest challenge is the availability of reliable power supply at these charging stations, especially along highways.

Way Ahead

• To promote EV uptake, the government should consider waiving highway toll fees for EVs, perhaps till 2025.
• Environmental bonus for car-makers and purchase price subsidies for EV buyers.
• India has set a goal that by 2030, 30% of cars sold annually should be EVs. But to realise this goal, the buyer, government, and the industry need to play their respective parts effectively.
• The government should aggressively work on improving the public charging infrastructure through a PPP model.
• The government must incentivise and push for solar-based charging stations.
• India needs to invest in alternative technologies like induction charging. 
• Any research on creating an affordable mass-market solution for highways, parking lots, etc., will revolutionise India’s EV market. Another area for research is on developing mass-market solid-state batteries for EVs.
• While FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV) schemes are a step in the right direction, the government must create a strong EV ecosystem to help India become a leading player in the EV manufacturing and components space.