India’s electric vehicle adoption push should very soon surpass Malaysia’s chit-chat about EV adoption. Tata Motors (Indian owned automotive manufacturer) has just unveiled possibly the cheapest electric SUV in the Indian market. The much awaited electric version of its Nexon SUV, named Nexon EV is priced at Rs 21,000 (about RM122k). The Tata Nexon EV launch date is expected to be around January 2020.
India, whose 14 cities count among the world’s 20 most polluted, wants to tackle pollution.
In the Indian electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem market, the EV market is anticipated to grow at a robust CAGR of 43.13% during the forecast period from 2019 to 2030. Additionally, installation of charging infrastructure is projected to grow at a CAGR of 42.38%.
With the entry of local battery manufacturers such as TATA Chemicals and BHEL alongside the import of batteries from global players, the electric vehicle battery market is expected to grow at a whooping CAGR of 60.15% during the forecast period.
The Indian electric vehicle ecosystem market is currently in its infancy just like Malaysia and Thailand but the push to move into EV adoption quickly is a priority to reduce unhealthy air quality in the 3 major cities.
The Indian government’s push to ensure EV adoption through subsidies and tax benefits has further propelled the market growth. Despite the Indian automotive industry experiencing a sharp decline in FY2019, the electric vehicle market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. With the BS6 norms becoming applicable from April 2020, the electric vehicles will become more price competitive against petrol and diesel vehicles, thus accelerating the electric vehicle sales in the country.
The government target for 30% adoption of electric vehicles by 2030 will be majorly driven by the electrification of two-wheeler, three-wheeler, and commercial vehicles which is the move that the Malaysian government should try and follow (minus three wheelers). Nearly 80 per cent of all vehicles sold in India are 2- and 3-wheelers.
There will definitely be a slower rate of adoption of electric vehicles in passenger vehicle segment just like with Malaysia and Thailand.
India wants to learn from China and is trying to adopt China’s quick evolving EV strategy.
China is now racing with Western countries to be an EV leader. In China there are direct and indirect tax subsidies and for large cities there are permit limits on how many petrol or diesel cars could receive permits/licenses to be used in the city.
In China, EV manufacturers get subsidies from the government and the charging infrastructure gets a boost from the government.
With a market value for electric vehicles easily exceeding USD150 billion by 2030. Those active in the EV sectors could well surpass most leading car makers in size and profit in the next 8-10 years.
Panasonic in India is already putting in place aggressive plans to strengthen the charging infrastructure. Panasonic is targeting to set up around one lakh charging stations for EVs across 25 top Indian cities by 2024. It is planning to set up mini charging stations across cities like Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Amaravati, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Noida and Ghaziabad. The charging facilities will be set up at petrol pumps, malls, and parking lots.
“We have deployed our solutions in Delhi NCR. We aim to expand to 25 cities in the next five years targeting approximately one million vehicles including commercial 2- and 3-wheelers and EVs which don’t have access to the domestic electric supply,” shares Atul Arya, Head, Energy Systems Division, Panasonic India.
Then there is ‘Sun Mobility’ who is creating a universal energy infrastructure which offers battery swapping facility for EVs in India. Unlike private vehicles, commercial vehicles like buses, auto-rickshaws and delivery vehicles can’t stop for long to charge batteries and travel long distances on a daily basis. Battery swapping addresses two major pain areas of commercial EVs: high price and range anxiety.
“Batteries make up 50 per cent of the total cost of the EV as compared to an ICE vehicle, which makes up 15-17 per cent of the cost. By removing batteries, price reduces by almost half and swapping batteries at interchange stations offers unlimited range to EVs. It is already creating a lot of interest from fleet operators,” says Avinash Sharma, Head, 2/3 Wheeler Business, Sun Mobility.
