The Electric Vehicle industry in India is far behind, with less than 1% of the total vehicle sales. Currently, Indian roads are dominated by conventional vehicles and have approximately 0.4 million electric two-wheelers and a few thousand electric cars only. The Indian EV industry has been on the back seat due to various challenges.
Today, the transport sector accounts for 18% of total energy consumption in India. This translates to an estimated 94 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) energy. If India were to follow the current trends of energy consumption, it would require an estimated 200 MTOE of energy supply annually by the year 2030 to meet the demand of this sector. Moreover, the energy sector also contributes an estimated 142 Million Tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, out of which 123 million tonnes are contributed to the road transport segment alone.
Keeping in view the climate protection commitments made by Government of India during the COP21 Summit in Paris to reduce emissions by 33-35% by 2030, it is pertinent to introduce alternative means in the transport sector which can be coupled with India’s rapid economic growth, rising urbanization, travel demand and the country’s energy security. Electric mobility presents a viable alternative in addressing these challenges, when packaged with innovative pricing solutions, appropriate technology and support infrastructure and thus, has been on the radar of Government of India.
The government has set targets to electrify 70% of all commercial vehicles, 30% of private cars, 40% of buses, and 80% of two-wheeler and three-wheeler sales by 2030. This means a vast change for a heavily booming market of vehicle sales in the 1.4b people country.
The national targets entail simultaneous penetration of charging stations across India.
It has recently been supporting the EV industry through funding schemes such as FAME1 and FAME2 with a major focus on charging infrastructure, next to investments into car and battery manufacturing.
Consequently, industry players are optimistic and have shown an active interest in the overall EV charging ecosystem setup. “Private investors and big players from the energy and infrastructure sectors keep knocking my door, looking for partnerships and investment opportunities into the EV sector, particularly in charging infrastructure from Europe”, says lavvell India director Nath Thripurana.
Ecosystems for the development of EV chargers, charging hubs, and other EV services are currently being worked out, but are still at an early stage. A proper charging network across India is still one of the perceived barriers to EV adoption given its limited availability at the time being. In this regard, the Ministry of Power has issued “Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles – Guidelines and Standards” mentioning the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders at central and state level, for expediting the development of public EV charging infrastructure across the country. The Ministry of Power has designated the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) as the Central Nodal Agency (CNA) for the National-level rollout of charging infrastructure in the country.
“So far, the development of EV infrastructure is slow, due to a lack of chargers”, analyses Mr. Thripurana, adding that “there are still many obstacles, such as power grid issues, lack of strategic concepts for locations and first and foremost a lack of technology access for Indian companies. We at lavvell India are here to bridge that gap and want to tie-up Indian investors with European EV tech companies for large-scale market penetration in the coming years.”
lavvell India is therefore actively looking for well-established EV infrastructure providers, who are keen in developing a footing in the Indian market. Mr. Thripurana: “We have huge prospects in India with its well-established tech- and business sectors and millions of vehicles on the streets, who will need to be electrified by 2030, not to mention ambitious climate protection targets that need to be met.”
The benefits for EV infrastructure providers are clear: (1) gaining access to one of the fastest growing EV markets in the world; (2) a chance of becoming a major infrastrucutre provider for the electric mobility market with global impact; (3) equity funding for ventures into other markets and R&D; (4) tie-up with Indian partners for local support.
Please contact lavvell for further information.