High cost of Electric Vehicle (EV) battery, lack of a ubiquitous charging infrastructure and policy transparency are the key constraints plaguing the electric mobility landscape in India, finds Grant Thornton CII report: Mobility through transition - Disruption and impact. The report waslaunched attheCII Next-Gen eMobility Summit in Delhi today. The report further suggests that the government needs to focus on importing lithium as sourcing this critical metal continues to be the key hurdle in EV adoption in India.

Releasing the report, Saket Mehra, Partner, Grant Thornton India LLP said, “The advent of new mobility era of powertrain electrification, shared mobility and software integration, has made it necessary for the auto industry to contemplate capacity redesign with the objective of seizing new growth markets. While regulators are taking a proactive stance to assess the techno-economic impact of large scale penetration of EVs on the grid, an appropriate regulatory framework is much-needed to facilitate the roll out of EVs.

This is the right time for India’s automotive industry to display its resilience and capability on the global stage as well as embrace the challenges on account of understanding new technology and business strategies. With investment potential of USD 667 billion globally, there is a thrust to make electric mobility a feasible alternative in the future.”

The report highlights how integrating transportation with electricity, developing the shared ecosystem platform, and scaling up the manufacturing are the key parts of India’s roadmap to have 30 per cent EVs on road by 2030. It further identifies three mega trends shaping the global automotive industry: powertrain migration from ICE to electric, evolution to Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and shared mobility and autonomous revolution where the driving experience will be enabled through sensors and automation.

While capturing the impact of these trends on auto component market in India, the report says that the migration of ICE to EV powertrain will mean that OEs will no longer require engine parts and drive transmission components or will have reduced demand for them. Component suppliers will have to relook at their product offerings, R&D efforts for developing and supplying electric motors (Permanent Magnet [PM] and induction motors), inverters, converters, rectifiers and Engine Management Systems (powertrain components).

“The emergence of e-vehicles will create a lot of opportunities as well pose many challenges for the existing industry. Although currently the challenges seem to outweigh the opportunities in India, the right steps from the government in sprucing up the support dynamics for EVs at distinct levels are anticipated to transform into a major opportunity in the future,” said Rattan Kapur, Chairman, CII Next-Gen eMobility Summit 2018.

Please click here to read the report.