Green Dreams and the Journey Ahead

IT’S RAINING EVS. Existing auto manufacturers and new tech firms are out there – busy announcing and launching electric vehicles (EVs) – be they two-wheelers, three-wheelers or four-wheelers. Startups too are emerging with potential solutions to green mobility challenges.

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India is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and plans to have 30 per cent of cars, and the majority of the two and three-wheelers in the EV category by 2030. Lot of forecasts, predictions and research reports have been compiled by now, on the state of the Indian EV sector. The outcomes denoted in much of these could actually vary from the reality in a few years. The Indian demographic shape, socio economic base, economic development, availability of EV infrastructure would impact these. It is expected that India’s green mobility (especially EV) would be largely led by the two-wheeler and three-wheeler green transition.

Globally, the EV trend is picking up traction. It is estimated that by 2040, one in three cars sold will be EVs. Electric vehicles are also shaping what competences the automobile firms will need, and not surprisingly, it is new technologies that stands out. Many legacy automobile manufacturers have been slow to the EV game and have to deal with their stakeholders’ cultural preparedness in their transition towards the EV mindset. Electric vehicles are changing the face of the Indian automobile sector. Automobile brands who built their entities on mechanical engineering capabilities, had to build or rebuild competencies around technology. The engineering capabilities include battery technology, developing user interfaces, software capabilities, and product design expertise.

Early Challenges

 The journey to a higher proportion of EVs, compared to the conventional IC engine vehicles won’t be easy. It will need certain aspects to be solved for, towards a large scale adoption of EVs.