According to a report published by FICCI, the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry can achieve the goal of more than 30% electrification by 2030 with a capital expenditure (capex) of around ₹ 16000 crore. This amount is required to set up EV charging infrastructures, which is the most crucial, factor coming in the way of the growing EV industry. With this, the EV charging will be available across 40 cities, and 20 highways across the country.
How the cities and the highways will be shortlisted?
For shortlisting, the highways and the cities where the EV charging industry is mostly booming the industry body, FICCI, will be analyzing the sales figures of the EVs. It will evaluate the rapid adoption of the EV two-wheelers as well as four-wheeler vehicles. In the FICCI report, it has also been mentioned that 50% of this ₹ 16000 crore will be invested mainly in 31 cities out of the 40 cities, which are both the list two and four-wheelers.
The report also indicates that these EV-charging public infrastructures will not only help the two or four-wheeler electric vehicles but also the public buses that run on electricity. This can in turn boost public transport as well and make them sustainable for the future as these busses run over 100 kilometres.
Importance of Charging Infrastructure and Other Schemes
The need for public EV charging infrastructure is inevitable as most people are deterred from buying EVs just because of the lack of charging stations. This EV charging infrastructure capex will also align with the PM E-Drive Scheme of the government where ₹ 2000 crore has been sanctioned for charging infrastructure, and ₹ 4000 crore and above for electrification of public busses.
The government has been doing all things possible to boost this sector and develop a sustainable future. It has incentive-based models for both the demand and supply side of EV adoption. The EV manufacturers can benefit from the production-linked incentives for EVs and auto components, (PLI-Auto) and this is a scheme for advanced chemistry cells (PLI-ACC) which aids consumers as well as manufacturers.
Bridging the running cost
The challenge in the EV industry is mainly charging related and the running cost compared to ICE vehicles. However, this gap is being bridged slowly. The total cost of operating an electric two or three-wheeler vehicle per kilometer is now lower than that of ICE vehicles, where the EV two-wheelers cost ₹ 1.55/ km compared to ₹ 2.87/km cost by ICE two-wheelers. The cost of operating ICE three-wheelers is almost thrice of EV three-wheeler’s cost.
Having said that, the target now is to bring down the operating cost of EV four-wheelers, which is ₹ 15.62/km compared to ICE four-wheeler’s ₹ 14.25/km ad FICCI report.
2030 Projections & Preparation of the Report by FICCI
FICCI took opinions from more than 25 stakeholders in the industry and experts in the EV sector to prepare the report. The challenges discussed are similar which include the lack of public charging infrastructures, and the enormous cost of home charging which is not practical and inconvenient. Thus to overcome these challenges, public EV charging infrastructures are mandatory.
In the report, the outlook for the industry suggests that EV adoption by 2030 as follows –
- Two–wheelers: 45%-48%
- Busses: 30%-35%
- Four-wheelers: 16%-20%
Current scenario of electric vehicle adoption –
- Two–wheelers: 3%-5%
- Busses: 5%-8%
- Four-wheelers: 1%-3%
Thus, the estimate indicates the demand for EV charging stations to rise drastically by 2030. While the demand for EVs is rising, along with the supply the crucial challenge is the charging infrastructure, which needs to be built to aid this EV sector’s growth and for a sustainable future.
Source: Mint
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