Auto-makers relax! 2030 isn’t final for roll out of electric cars in India

As climate change makes itself more and more felt, fossil fuels are being looked at as something that needs to be changed. In an effort to move towards something more sustainable auto companies have no doubt started moving towards the electric path. And while the road will be long and hard, it is not undoable. Here are the electric cars that are already on sale in India.

Automakers could be up for a big relief as 2030 may not be the final deadline for rolling out of electric vehicles in India.

Sources informed Moneycontrol that “there is no deadline” for rolling out electric vehicles in India as electric vehicles do not have the required “range”.

“There is no deadline… It is just a wish of some ministers to have substantial penetration of electric vehicles,” sources said.

Union minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, had shaken up the auto-industry last month by saying that he would “bulldoze” the industry if they don’t comply with it.

Also read: Bulldozer, E-vehicles and BS-VI: Gadkari must bring 'clear' vehicle policy soon, feel experts

“We should move towards alternative fuel... I am going to do this, whether you like it or not. And I am not going to ask you. I will bulldoze it…” Gadkari had said at Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturer’s (SIAM) annual convention.

EV penetration is less than a percent of total automobile count in India. Majority of these are low speed scooters.

Industry players and experts had called the deadline “ambitious” as other developed countries have set a deadline two decades ahead.

The target for roll out of EVs is 2032 for Scotland and 2040 for France and Britain. China has also announced its plans to phase out fuel based vehicles but has not specified the time.

Sources also said that government would be happy if there was “enough” penetration of EVs in the next 13 years.

“Even if we achieve 30-40 percent, that would be enough,” Moneycontrol was told.

It was learnt that there is a general consensus among policy makers that India has infrastructural hurdles thus having a complete EV fleet is not possible.

Also read: Govt should scrap old vehicles before bringing new ones: Renault

India has only 500 charging stations against a requirement of three lakh stations alone in Delhi. Battery manufacturing is also a concern in the country as there is no indigenous manufacturing facility available.

“Anything that doesn’t have range may not last very long…,” people close to the matter added, hinting that electric vehicles would not be the end in India.

It was also learnt that since electric cars “have slow charging”, it wasn’t affirmed that electric fleet would be seen in future or not.

“We don’t even know whether electric (vehicles) shall stay till 2030 or not… We might have hydrogen cars, we might have fuel cell cars... electric is only transient,” they informed.