100 Percent Electric Cars by 2030 – India’s most Ambitious Plan
- In Mathematics, Science & Technology
- 11:39 AM, Jun 26, 2016
- Suresh S Murthy
India has proved to be one of the fastest growing economies in Asia with a growth rate of 7.9 percent in the last few quarters of 2015. With such rapid growth and ever increasing energy needs of its increasing population, it has already started charting out ambitious plans to sustain this high speed growth. One such initiative to meet the energy needs of the country and also fulfill its commitment towards climate change and reducing carbon foot print is National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP)
It aims to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country. There is an ambitious target to achieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles year on year from 2020 onwards. With the support from the Government, the cumulative sale is expected to reach 15-16 Million by 2020. It is expected to save 9500 Million Liters of crude oil equivalent to Rs. 62000 Cr. savings. Government has launched the scheme namely Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME India) under NEMMP 2020 in the Union Budget for 2015-16 with an initial outlay of Rs. 75 Cr.
According to the FAME program, it will offer a variety of different incentives for those looking to purchase different types of electric vehicles. This includes scooters, motorcycles, cars, buses, light commercial vehicles, and others — all of which will have access to some form of subsidization or other. Incentives of up to Rs 29,000 ($457) will be on offer for new electric scooters + motorcycles, and subsidies of up to Rs 138,000 ($2,177) will be available for new electric cars. The new incentives can potentially lower the cost of purchase for those interested quite substantially — by over 15%.
Along with this plan, India has also announced recently its most ambitious plan to date, 100 percent electric cars by 2030! Speaking in a youth conference the power minister, Piyush Goyal announced this ambitious plan with intent to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and instead going with alternatives like electric vehicles. A working group including that a small working group under the leadership of Road Transport and Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari has been created with Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on its board had been established to work toward this goal.
The government plans to incentivize the buyers of electric cars by allowing them to buy these cars with zero down-payment and finance the vehicle from the money they would save from future fuel savings. This is the result of an innovative and responsible government which has a clear vision about the future.
This move has naturally fuelled a lot of excitement amongst automakers around the world including the most successful electric car maker, Tesla Motors. Telsa motors recently announced its plan to enter into Indian market with its latest offering, Model 3, a luxury sedan, with almost half the price compared to other markets. The model 3 is planned to be priced at anywhere between 30,000 to $40,000 (approx Rs 18-24 lakh) that makes it an ideal product in the luxury car segment. The latest offering is significantly lower in price compared to their Model-S, which is priced approximately around $100,000 (around Rs 61 lakh). The company believes that new offering will allow them to be more affordable in the Indian market and will hopefully have more customers. It is also looking forward to receive strong support from the Govt. of India in the form subsidies, which the California based company enjoys in the US.
Typically, the governments across the world seem to have been offering a variety of incentives for automakers to promote the manufacturing and sale of electric cars. This provides detailed information about the use of electric cars across various refer this. It offers great insights into how various countries are adopting the use of electric cars and hybrid cars.
During a recent conversation with my colleague at office, he shared his experience of switching from a petrol fueled car to a completely electric car like Nissan Leaf. Although his experience with the car has been limited, it echoes what I have witnessed personally with so many other friends of mine in the Silicon Valley. The switch to a fully electric car like Nissan Leaf offers great advantages in terms of saving not just gas prices but also attractive tax breaks from Federal and State governments in the US. It has become a de-facto choice of almost all car owners who are increasingly seeing the benefits of owning an electric car.
A car like Nissan Leaf easily offers a great alternative for regular fossil fuel based cars by providing a mileage of ~100 miles per charge. This should easily suffice the needs of everyday commute for office goers. Also, with innovative offers from Nissan like this one, it has managed to capture the market share very well.
Now back in India, I do see a few challenges compared its wide success in the United States. Here are few of them:
1. Infrastructure to support enough charging stations
This can be the single most challenging part of this whole initiative. Even in a matured market like the United States, there is always a challenge to find enough charging points for all the electric vehicles on the road and people still crib about not having enough charging stations. I believe this should be developed based on a PPP model where the government incentives the private players to set up generic charging stations and offering the charging infrastructure at an affordable price.
2. Reduction in Transmission & Distribution (T&D) losses
One of the biggest concerns India has historically seen is the amount of electricity lost in transmission. According this article, The World Resources Institute estimates electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in India to be 27 percent - the highest in the world. The T&D losses are due to a variety of reasons, viz., substantial energy sold at low voltage, sparsely distributed loads over large rural areas, inadequate investment in distribution system, improper billing and high pilferage. As we implement such lofty initiatives to meet the energy needs, we also need to strengthen out transmission and distribution network and ensure the loss of electricity is as minimal as possible. This will help us utilize the power we generate from various sources and make them available for consumption more efficiently.
3. Ways to contribute to the grid
One interesting point my colleague mentioned was the provision he has to contribute the electricity he generates at home using solar to the grid of the local power company. In this case, it happened to be PG&E. This for me is a classic example how a program like using solar panels to generate power and become self reliant in terms of energy consumption also offers avenue to share excess with the grid. He mentioned how it is so easy for him to share the excess power generated on few days is easily shared to the grid can be used by him (for almost not cost) when his needs to consume it back. For me this is a win-win situation. I wonder if this is something that can be thought about as an option in India too.
4. Lack of awareness about need for electric vehicles
I distinctly remember conversation with my ex colleague several years back when we talked about Reva, a small electric car and how it was an interesting concept. It was almost 8 years ago and back then it almost appeared as if there was no way one could think of having this as their primary vehicle. But fast forward 2016, an electric today is not just a want or good thing to have, but slowly becoming a de-facto choice when going with fuel efficient choices. I strongly believe that if this program hast to succeed, the general public must be educated about the real crisis we have in terms of our increasing consumption of fossil fuels and how we need to switch to alternative fuels. Unless this is done, this program will never be a success.
Hopefully India will manage to woo the automakers around the world to come up with more energy efficient cars to meet the demands of its consumer by 2030 and make this ambitious project a grand success!!
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