Electric Vehicles in India – Current Scenario

By Satyam Saxena1
This is the era when every individual is concerned about the pace of climate change. One
of the prime reasons is emission of harmful gases due to human activities. Another big
challenge is depletion of natural resources. Countries like India, who are highly
dependent on imports oil and oil products for production process and consumption, are
looking for alternative sources of energy. India is the third largest importer of crude oil
in the world which shows oil dependency on their economic activity. Petrol and diesel are
the major refined crude oil products which are supplied by the oil industries to the
ultimate consumers for running
Total numbers of Electric Vehicles sales state
vehicles. Among various sectors that wise till October 2018.
Tamil Nadu 16626
depend on diesel, transportation sector Pundicherry 808
Andaman & Nicobar 82
is the largest in terms of consumption of Andhra Pradesh 9392
Orissa
diesel/ petrol. 3852
Chhattisgarh 4106
As per 2017 report, 4 million motor Jharkhand 1702
Tripura 81
vehicles were sold in India and this Manipur 52
Nagaland 51
number showing an upward trend, Assam 1874
Meghalaya 6
because of increasing the standard of Bihar 3123
Uttar Pradesh 25782
living and disposable income of the West Bengal 14130
people. This economic development is Uttarakhand 4124
STATE

Himachal Pradesh 98
hazardous for the environment which Jammu & Kashmir 431
kerala 11197
causes Greenhouse gases emission, air Karnataka 13269
Goa 514
pollution, and improper disposal of Telengana 8979
Maharastra 33661
waste, etc, or we can say this Dadar and Nagar Haveli 820
Gujarat 31236
development is not an energy efficient Madhya Pradesh 6442
development of the economy. Rajasthan 15412
Delhi 19343
According to the United Nations Chandigarh 2493
Haryana 23234
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Punjab 6464

Change (IPCC), greenhouse gas emission 0 10000 20000 30000 40000

TOTAL NUMBER OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES
must be reduced by 85% by 2050 as per Source - FAME- India, Department of heavy vehicles

1
Satyam Saxena is working as Research Associate with Ascension Centre for Research and Analytics.
The author is solely responsible for all views and data as expressed in the article.
the level of 2000. And to mitigate this adverse effect of climate change, there should be
development, and consumption of energy efficient products. Transportation sector is the
primary consumer of oil (56,58,000 tonnes in 2016-17) and one of the major contributors
of GHG emission as compared to other users. So, to reduce the oil imports and achieve the
target of GHG emission reduction, government start supporting automobile industries to
produce energy efficient road vehicles in the form of subsidizing the product. Now the
biggest challenge for the government is to reduce Co2 emission without disorganizing the
mobility of the population. Out of the all other modes of transportation, road
transportation itself consumed (26,51,000 tonnes of fuel in 2016-17) which is more than
50%.
An electric vehicle can be a right shift for GHG emission reduction as well as a reduction
in oil imports. Many countries have taken initiatives to produce Electric Vehicles and
promised to achieve their targets in the next 10 to 15 years. India also made policies for
the promotion of such electric vehicles and targeted to shift 1/3 of the petrol and diesel
vehicles buyer to electric vehicles users by 2030. For keep tracking and promoting
electric cars, the government made a scheme under the Department of the heavy industry
called Faster Adoption and
Transportation Consumption of
Diesel (000'tonne) Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric
Vehicle in India. This scheme was
7,000
Total Consumption

6,000
5,000 launched in the Financial year 2015-16
4,000
3,000 with the budget of Rs. 75 Crores. Till
2,000
1,000 November 2018, 2,59,327 numbers of
0
electric vehicles are sold by the
automobile industry and reduce fuel
Years consumption of 3,63,09,312 litres, i.e.
Source -: Energy Statistics 2018, Ministry of statistics and 52,268 litres per day. Not only this, the
programme implementation
buyers of 2,59,327 electric vehicle also
helped in reducing C02 emission 9,07,13,557 Kg which is 1,29,578 Kg per day.
There are other difficulties India is facing such as lack of infrastructure and electricity
production from renewables. Roads in India are not in good condition where the electric
vehicle can work efficiently. Also, high electricity transmission losses which needed to
improve so that there must be proper utilization of resources. Production of renewable
energy are still not up to the that level which can fulfil the demand. Apart the challenges,
electric Vehicles are coming up with positive sides such as reduction on fuel dependency.
To promote this government, provide a subsidy of about 20% on each electric vehicle.
Electric vehicles are not only good for environmental protection but also helpful in
reducing the running cost of the car. At present there running cost is around Rs. 1 per Km
which is very low and economically viable. Although, there are registered fewer numbers
of charging stations to get the vehicle charge which are increasing as an increase in
demand.
Usage Cost difference between Electric and Petrol based two-wheeler vehicle

Particulars Unit Electric Petrol

Prices of 2 Wheelers (Rs.) 35490 60489
1.5 units of
Consumption of 50 km per day Km per day 1 litre of Petrol
electricity
Per unit cost of vehicle (Rs.) 11 70
Duration of vehicle (years) 5 5
Total running in 5 year (Km) 75000 75000
Average Maintenance cost for 5 years (Rs.) 10000 25000
Cost of Refuelling for 5 years (Rs.) 15750 90000
Battery Cost for 5 years (Rs.) 30300 0
Cost of running for 5 year (Rs.) 91540 175489
Saving in 5years (Rs.) 83949
Source -Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV)

Currently, the total electricity generation capacity is meagre with high transmission
losses. And the contribution of renewable sources of energy is also inadequate. So, there
must be a considerable improvement required in electricity production to produce
energy efficient products in the market.
 Net electricity generation and renewable energy generation
1400000 4,00,000

Contribution of Renewable Energy

Total Electricity generation
1200000 3,50,000
1000000 3,00,000
800000 2,50,000
2,00,000
600000 1,50,000
400000 1,00,000
200000 50,000
0 -

Years

Net Electricity Generated from Utilities (in Giga Watt hour =106 Kilo Watt hour)
Renewable energy installed

Source -: Energy Statistics 2018, Ministry of statistics and programme implementation

India has wholly good potential to produce renewable resources. It has the world most
substantial solar part in Tamil Nadu. There are many such initiatives taken by the
government to achieve their target signed in COP21. The government also announced
that by the year 2030 India would have 100% electric vehicles. This target could be
reached if the government able to achieve 60% of electricity production from renewable
resources by 2026. So, we can say India is in the right direction for meeting their targets.
State wise demand of electric vehicles in India distributed based on 2-wheeler, 3-wheeler
and 4-wheeler.

2 WHEELER ELECTRIC VEHICLES

30328
20931
18886
15885
12268
11794
9729
6700
6230
5883
5477
5283
3864
3815
3544
3279
2986
2848
1609
1531
1075
493
239
73
50
35
13
 3 WHEELER ELECTRIC VEHICLES

328

286

138

117

114

83

83

70

44

18

16

3
3

1
4 WHEELER ELECTRIC VEHICLE STATE WISE
38268
15389
12695
8256
7132
5730
5531
5446
4878
4117
3680
3567
2562
1994
1843
974
803
655
594
514
325
271
265
208
151
98
82
12
8
6
1

Source - FAME- India, Department of heavy vehicles

References:
http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Energy_Statistics_2018.pdf
https://auto.ndtv.com/news/electric-mobility
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253645417_Energy_Efficiency_of_Electric_Vehicles
https://file.scirp.org/pdf/OJEE_2015022816150070.pdf
https://fame-india.gov.in/ModelUnderFame.aspx