Why Electric Vehicles?
The country’s economy and supply chains may both profit from recycling mandates and allow incentives wherever they apply because the aim of deployment of Electric vehicles on a large scale will definitely result in degraded batteries in the long run,and at least two batteries need to be changed for a lifetime in general, which will for sure demand the recycling of the batteries. — Dr. S. Lingamurthy & Ms. Shivanjali Shukla
Despite India accounts for around 17% of the world’s population, the country’s historical impact on total global greenhouse gas emissions is negligible. Annual emissions per capita in India are around one-third of the world average.It has been made readily apparent in the Summary for Policy Makers (SPM) of the Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) [2022] that the carbon footprint of Southern Asia as a whole is only approximately 4% of the past’s overall net emissions from human activities. During this period, North America and Europe have individually accounted for nearly ten times more total greenhouse gas emanations at the global level despite comprising less than thirteen per cent of the world’s population. In light of the need for wealthy nations to achieve carbon neutrality by investing extensively in net zero emissions and offering sufficient climate financing, technology transfer, and capacity-building assistance, India has every right to demand that these nations do it early, at least prior to 2050. At the Conference of Parties 26 in Glasgow in 2021, in the presence of a significant portion of the global vehicle industry, the statement aiming to achieve a 100% transition to zero emissions by 2030-40 was made. India, while signing the declaration, said that all governments should promote the transition of light cars to zero-emission automobiles. This objective is projected to determine India’s zero-emissions pathway in the years to come. NITI Aayog said in 2019 that by 2030, it wanted seventy per cent of all business cars, thirty per cent of all private cars, forty per cent of all buses, and eighty per cent of all two-wheelers and three-wheelers to be electric. There is a pressing need to place the rules and long-term plans by keeping all kinds of convergence activities with all line departments in general and infrastructure projects in particularto give the market more confidence in accomplishing the targets in a targeted time.
In contrast to other international markets, the Indian EV market is characterised by a distinct set of factors, including market demands, consumer tastes & preferences, and economic dynamics. Electric automobiles emit no tailpipe emissions, are less noisy, more environmental friendly, and less complicated, perhaps leading to less servicing and maintenance costs. As such, the combination of decarbonisation of energy systems and electrification of transportation systems provides a significant possibility to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. However, the potential amount of greenhouse gas emissions that may be reduced by electrification is reliant upon the energy carriers that are used to create the electricity that is used to power electric vehicles. When electric vehicles (EVs) are fuelled by electricity derived from fossil fuels (such as coal, gas, or oil), there is a 20% decrease in the emissions that are produced by vehicles. In terms of greenhouse gases as well as air pollutants such as particulate matter, sulphur oxides, and nitrogen oxides, the operation of electric vehicles that are fuelled by energy derived from renewable sources such as solar and wind is virtually totally non-polluting.
In India, the adoption of electric cars has taken significant momentum and growing despite having several obstacles and hardships. Certainly it is attributed to the government’s introduction of electric car incentives through FAME India in order to meet the aim of producing 7 million EVs by 2030 and satisfy the goals set by NEMMP 2020, EVs having low operational expenses and the cost of crude oil is increasing due to the fact that 80 percent of the nation’s crude oil needs are imported from abroad.
Despite being in its early stages, India’s electric vehicle (EV) industry now has more possibilities than obstacles. However, if the government takes the appropriate measures to encourage the growth of EVs at different levels, it is expected to change into a market with abundant potential in the future, but still, it lacks the infrastructure required in the form of charging stations at all the nooks and corners of the country and one of the main catalysts to solve the issue of range anxiety among the EV owners, especially for long distance journey.
In addition, the present infrastructure for accessing fuel and diesel would need to be replaced with a network of public and private charging stations in order to facilitate the transition to electric vehicles. Nationwide, there are 12,146 public electric vehicle charging stations that are functioning. In order to facilitate the promotion of electric automobiles in India, the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) has been making persistent efforts to do so. As part of the FAME-II plan, financial assistance was provided in the form of a subsidy for the establishment of public charging infrastructure. This was done with the intention of fostering trust among electric vehicle users. In addition, the Ministry of Power has implemented a number of efforts to speed up the deployment of public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) throughout the nation. Some of them are:public charging stations (PCSs) will get a 20% discount on the average cost of supply (ACoS) from DISCOMs during solar hours and a 20% fee outside of those hours, making it possible for people to charge their electric vehicles at home or at the workplace using the power outlets that already exist, providing land for public charging stations at discounted prices via a revenue sharing mechanism, supplying power to public charging stations (PCS) in a timely manner as agreed upon,until 31st March 2025, the one-part EV tariff for public charging stations cannot surpass the Average Cost of Supply (ACoS), and During solar hours, the maximum price per unit of power utilised for slow AC charging of electric vehicles at PCS is Rs 2.50, while during non-solar hours, it is Rs 3.50. There is also a restriction of Rs. 10/-per unit of power used for DC Fast charging of EVs at PCS during solar hours and Rs. 12/-per unit of energy used during non-solar hours.
India is going to examine the adoption of vehicle-grid integration alternatives in order to enable the coordination of increased demand on the energy grid (Das & Deb, 2020; FICCI, 2020). This is in addition to growing the country’s production of electric vehicles and batteries via production-linked incentives (PLI) programs. In order to keep up with the growing demand for electric mobility, there are plans to increase the decarbonisation of the grid and to set up off-grid renewable hybrid charging and swapping stations for batteries. In the short to medium term, India will also address rules pertaining to the management of recyclables associated with electric vehicles (EVs), as well as concepts of circular economies for the electric vehicle industry. As the electric vehicle sector continues to expand, there will be a need for the workforce to undergo retraining in order to be able to produce and operate new technologies and infrastructure that are associated with them.
Various state Governments in India can embrace the EV program as a chance to develop local production as a component of the industrial strategy and keep a portion of the value chain inside their national boundaries in order to provide employment opportunities and secure economic benefits. The policies play a crucial role in developing the electric vehicle industry; as part of the broader Make in India initiative, the policies at both central and state levels can complement the national government’s efforts to execute the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for the car and battery-related sectors. In general, there are two approaches: the first is to include electric vehicle (EV) production in the industrial strategy, and the second is to provide incentives for manufacturers to establish businesses inside the respective state.
There are a number of states that have clearly proclaimed plans to become manufacturing centres of electric vehicles (EVs) in order to provide job opportunities and local economic benefits. It has been expected and planned by a number of states that investments in electric vehicle (EV) programs and production will result in a generation of new jobs, as many state policies aimed at skill development and innovation programs. Also, there is a need for skill development and reskilling of the new and existing employees in general and vehicle service segment in particular in order to tackle the shift from ICEV to EV along with technological innovation and development with the help of contributing R&D practices. The country’s economy and supply chains may both profit from recycling mandates and allow incentives wherever they apply because the aim of deployment of Electric vehicles on a large scale will definitely result in degraded batteries in the long run,and at least two batteries need to be changed for a lifetime in general, which will for sure demand the recycling of the batteries.
