Keep off the brake pedal: India's EV transition has no time to lose

Incentives and subsidies have served us well but we need clear mandates and innovative solutions designed for our market

- Amitabh Kant & Pawan Mulukutla

Electric vehicles (EVs) on Indian roads breached the 6.5 million mark in May 2025. With over 2 million EVs sold in 2024 and rising adoption across two-wheelers, three-wheelers and public transport, the groundwork is firmly in place, and we are ready for take-off.

The stellar progress so far has been made possible by a forward-looking and purposeful policy push, starting from Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) to the recent PM E-Drive and scheme for making electric passenger cars in India. There are several ongoing interventions and initiatives to address rampant bottlenecks in financing, credit mechanisms, charging networks and the battery value chain. So far, the government has spent more than ₹40,000 crore on incentives, which in turn has led India to a 7.8% share of EVs in annual vehicle sales.

We now need a well-calibrated push for large-scale adoption of EVs across India's cities, both big and small, without digressing from the national EV agenda; we must not risk derailing the impressive progress we have made thus far.

The government has spent enormous funds to incentivize the automobile industry and battery ecosystem while taking decisive measures to localize manufacturing, ensure domestic value addition and enhance the uptake of the production-linked incentive scheme. While incentives and subsidies played a key role in market development, the path ahead requires setting up long-term expectations and visibility that can step up the momentum.