ELECTING TO GO ELECTRIC

Indian cities may otherwise be earning notoriety on world pollution indices, but Hyderabad seems to be racing towards a cleaner future.

- Amarnath K. Menon

On February 11, after hosting the first-ever Formula E race in India-also the first on a street circuit-Telangana's capital is poised to earn a place at the global electric vehicle (EV) high table. That all 20,000 tickets were sold out for the inaugural event of the electric equivalent of Formula 1 is testimony to the growing popularity here of motorsport as well as green mobility.

In 2022, every 20th vehicle registered in the country was an EV, with more than one million of them sold in India. The Union and state governments have launched several initiatives to expedite EV adoption. A NITI Aayog report says that by 2030, some 80 per cent of two- and three-wheelers, 40 per cent of buses, and 30-70 per cent of cars in India will be EVs.

Latching on to this trend swiftly, Telangana is determined to make the most of it. "We are committed to providing an impetus to EV adoption and aim to be the most electrified state in electric mobility," said industries, information technology and urban administration minister K.T. Rama Rao, who pulled out all the stops to get the Formula E race to Hyderabad-to be an annual event. The state is vigorously pursuing a comprehensive strategy to manufacture various components of the EV ecosystem such as cell and cell components and battery charging and swapping stations, and two-wheeler, three-wheeler and buses, as also taking steps towards refining lithium.