Establishing the charging infrastructure is a significant challenge in adoption of Electric Vehicles in India: Grant Thornton-CII report

While India has pledged to have an “all-electric car production effective 2030”, the lack of charging infrastructure is one of the prime concerns for the Government of India (GoI) to achieve this milestone, finds Grant Thornton CII report - Sustainable NextGen Automotive Technologies - Imperative India released at the CII Conference today. India lags behind in the availability of charging infrastructure with 353 charging stations only spread across the country. Large number of these charging stations have been set up by the manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (EV).

To reach the 2020 target as established by GoI, investments are needed for increasing the power capacity and establishment of charging infrastructure. According to the report, it is estimated that by 2020, extra power generation capacity of 150-225 MW would be required with an investment of roughly INR 750-1000 crore.

“Electric Vehicle’s will need to address both range anxiety and price anxiety (TCO standpoint) from a consumer acceptance standpoint. Range Anxiety will be addressed by having a good network of charging infrastructure whereas price anxiety would be addressed by product innovation as well as subsidies in the short term to push greater adoption,” said Alok Verma, Partner, Grant Thornton India LLP.

The report further highlights that for deeper penetration and sustainable development of EVs, two and three-wheeler play a major role. India being the largest two-wheeler market, infrastructural investments seem the only way forward for achieving the same. An additional energy generation would be required to be increased by 10-15 MW requiring a potential investments of INR 50-75 crore to set up approx. 15,000 charging terminals.

Globally, the adoption of EVs looks promising. Combination of action points agreed upon in Paris Declaration, regulatory pressure with countries planning to go fully electric (Norway by 2025) and technological breakthroughs in battery costs, solar power, etc., is making the EV disruption more real than its current footprint of just 1.2 per cent of global automotive sales.

“Several policies are being implemented by various countries to curb harmful vehicle emissions and control global warming. Such policies fuel the demand for Hybrid Electric Vehicles as these can reduce CO2 emissions considerably. GoI is also taking steps in this direction. We hope that deliberations at today’s conference by the policy makers, leading automotive players, institutions, and technology experts will help the industry in aligning its efforts for adoption of environment-friendly technologies,” said Shreekant Somany, Chairman, CII - Centre of Excellence for Competitiveness for SMEs.