India's EV Conundrum
India's EV Conundrum
India must transform its EV policy to devise progressive urban transport strategies
‘Green mobility’ has garnered significant attention over the last few years. Considered essential to make transport sustainable, this sub-domain of transportation planning has become an independent sector in itself. Electric mobility, an emergent part of this larger realm, has become a hot topic for research and debate among transportation experts and policymakers in India. Capital-intensive infrastructure requirements, coal-based energy generation, and battery recycling and disposal are few key concerns that are often highlighted as externalities to electric mobility. Many claim that electric vehicles (EVs) will not be able to make a significant impact in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as 70% of India’s energy comes from coal-based thermal power plants. Despite this, EVs can arguably improve air quality, and help reduce India’s dependency on oil imports that account for 3% of the total GDP of the country. It will help in localizing the emissions outside city limits enabling ease in treatment of the pollution generated. With a significant increase in renewable energy generation, innovation in battery technology, and low operating costs, EVs have the potential to transform the urban mobility landscape of India.
The story so far
India has been promoting electric mobility at both national and state levels through various policies, schemes, and programs. The first massive push towards the adoption of EVs was witnessed in 2015 with the rollout of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme by the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI). Though the scheme could only utilize 41% of the allocated funds, it was able to successfully pilot the operation of EVs across all modes in India. The second phase of the scheme was introduced in 2019 that outlays ₹10,000 crores to incentivize different modes of transport and charging infrastructure. However, only 5% of the allocated incentives have been utilized till now. Recently, on 11th June 2021, DHI has incremented the incentives on electric two-wheelers by 50% on top of the existing incentive to boost the adoption. At the state level, 13 Indian states have notified their EV policies and 7 state EV policies are currently in their draft stage. While it is appreciable that these policies are supporting the nascent EV ecosystem, it is also essential to evaluate them from the lens of sustainability as they engage in a significant role in this paradigm shift to electric mobility from conventional fuel vehicles.
Roadblocks in the current scenario
Many EV policies that tend to support the EV ecosystem pose a challenge to both the environment and sustainable mobility. One key aspect to be realized here is that reducing the number of cars is better than making them “green”. Further, incentives to lead-acid based e-rickshaws that hinge on hazardous and restricted lead with low volumetric energy density and limitless permits to e-autos and e-cabs will not only worsen the congestion in the city but also impact the public transport ridership. The feasibility of capital-intensive public transport investments, including metro, neo-metro and bus rapid transit (BRT) projects, will be negatively impacted unless there is an integration of these projects with the EV policies. The existing EV policies focus on providing public charging infrastructure across cities. Multiple electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) standards, in the absence of interoperability, pose the challenge of inadequate utilisation of public charging stations (PCS). Mere adoption of PCS without considering the local demands would end up in inefficient utilisation of financial and infrastructural resources in several cities. The absence of long-term sustained electrification vision coupled with a lack of guaranteed domestic demand is key gaps in the present policy landscape. Lastly, the limited focus on innovation, skill development and public outreach pose the question of being progressive.
The way forward
Formulating progressive urban transport strategies requires rethinking the EV policies – both at the state and central level. While several examples at the international and local level of such innovations exist, learnings from such examples must be replicated and contextualised for each state, to develop truly progressive strategies. For example, Kolkata has utilised the existing tram depots to install e-bus charging stations, thereby reducing its upstream charging infrastructure costs. Such contextualised strategies will address local-level challenges as well as bring innovation and cost-effectiveness to the industry. The following are some examples that can pave the path to achieve the said goal.
Although it is essential to support the emergent EV ecosystem, it is also critical to examine the sustainability components of these policies.
The absence of promised domestic demand can be addressed through phased electrification of government-owned/managed fleets and a mandate that requires a certain share of annual automobile sales to be composed of electric vehicles by a certain year, similar to the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate of the USA and New Energy Vehicle (NEV) mandate of China. The states must align their policies to the central government's initiative to maximize their impact, many requiring revisions to line up with the updated central policy. Policies may also allocate funds for the formulation of a long-term sustained electrification strategy. The incentives for charging infrastructure can be linked to the renewable contribution of the energy to strengthen the network of renewable energy generation and charging infrastructure setup.
Further, the policy incentives for the deployment of charging infrastructure must align to that of EV market requirements of 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers and 4-wheelers to ensure adequate asset utilization of the public charging stations. Free access to public transport services to people selling off their private vehicles and incentivizing the scrapping of conventional vehicles are other measures towards sustainable mobility through EV policies. Policies may also prioritize awareness components, the Switch Delhi EV awareness campaign being one such initiative. Fund allocation for setting up a dedicated EV research cell, as in the case of Andhra Pradesh, to support entrepreneurs and researchers can play a pivotal role in the long run.
EV policies have immense potential to influence the urban transport sector. Focussing on the broader aspects of sustainability while bolstering the flourishing EV ecosystem will help India formulate progressive urban transport strategies, directing the nation towards achieving its sustainable development goals.
This article is an eye opener to the current thinking of sustainable urban mobility. While I see a tremendous role of urban plannerespecially transport planers, in carefully examining the role of national and state level EV policies, if at all they exist in each state of India, the challenges will be how to translate them into action at the ground zero given the history non integrated transport system prevailing at present in Indian cities.
This article should have highlighted both advantages and disadvantages (if there are any) both in short and long run in adopting it or switching to EV in Indian cities.
I am still not convinced that EV would solve the problem of traffic congestion on the already overcrowded roads on major Indian cities. The other long term issues which is paramount, is the disposal of lithium batteries after their stipulated use. India's record of hazardous waste management is very poor. If lithium battery does not fall into a hazardous category, even then the disposal would be a huge task for the urban authorities.
Last but not the least, why don't we use the less expensive technologies in integrating the urban transport system. For example, let us do it in a phase manner, switch to gas based electric mobility for transport system - whether public or private, integrate all mode of transport system in city, state and interstate transport system, disincentivise use of private transport and encourage public transport with huge incentives, even if it is a free ride for selected group of people, women, children, elderly and differently able people with ground zero IPT facilities to make urban mobility a sustainable one. Sustainability also aims at 'equity' which is not included in the EV policy currently in India.