LOW ON CHARGE

In India and elsewhere, the electric vehicle story has not quite lived up to the overzealous projections of a few years ago. A course correction is under way.

- SUMANT BANERJI

As is evident from the first month of this new decade, the future of the automobile industry in India belongs to electric vehicles (EVs). Almost half a dozen new vehicles were either launched or unveiled in January. This is more than the tally for the whole of 2019.

A few of them such as Bajaj Chetak, TVS iQube and Mercedes EQC heralded the entry of established players into the mix. A couple of others, namely, Tata Nexon EV and MG’s ZS EV, sought to lower the bar on affordability. Ather Energy, which has fast gained the reputation of being the Tesla for electric two-wheelers in India, took the other route with its 450X electric scooter offering hyper performance. The company calls it the ‘super scooter’.

This is just the beginning. EVs are at the centre-stage at this year’s Auto Expo and many new brands and models will enter the fray during the course of the year. It is not difficult to see why these developments are following the government’s push for EVs over the past three years. EVs are touted as a one-stop solution to many critical problems in India. The most direct and immediate impact is on curbing air pollution and reducing import of crude oil. Crude alone accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s overall imports. The country accounts for 29.4 per cent of the world’s oil consumption, only behind China and the US. India is also the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) at two million kilotons behind, again, China and the US. In the national capital of Delhi, pollution due to particulate matter regularly exceeds the World Health Organization’s (WHO) limits by a factor of 7-12.