India has set itself a target for electrifying its vehicles – 30 per cent electrification of its new vehicle fleet by 2030. Will the country meet this 30@30 target?
“While several policy strategies have taken shape to promote electric vehicles at the national and state levels, regulatory levers to propel the market have remained weak. According to the International Energy Agency (2023), the current direction of policies will lead to only 25 per cent electrification by 2035,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). She was speaking at CSE’s annual Anil Agarwal Dialogue here today.
The State of India’s Environment 2025 (SOE 2025) report was released at the Dialogue, which is an annual conclave of journalists from India who write on environment and development issues. Over 80 journalists from across the country are participating in this one-of-its-kind platform, organised every year by CSE at its facility, the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute, located in Nimli, Rajasthan.
India’s target is driven by the country’s support to the global EV30@30 campaign which aims at achieving the following: electrification of 30 per cent of newly registered private cars; 40 per cent of new buses; 70 per cent of commercial cars; and 80 per cent of two- and three-wheelers by 2030. Against this, the overall electric vehicle (EV) penetration in 2024 in India stood at only 6.5 per cent.
Said Roychowdhury: “The demand for battery indicates which way the EV market is headed. Currently, EV growth is propelled largely by smaller vehicles like two- and three-wheelers, which cannot add big numbers of battery demand. The larger demand for battery development has to come from four-wheelers.”
She added: “One of the deterrents to scaling up EV sales in India has been the high purchase cost of EVs compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. Localisation of EVs is critical in achieving economies of scale and bringing down costs – our programmes to support EVs will not work if we do not support localised manufacturing.”
In its assessment of the Indian EV sector, the SOE 2025 points out that EV component localisation has been a challenge because there is no manufacturing base in India – this is pushing equipment manufacturers and suppliers towards imports. “Localisation will get an impetus only with advances in indigenous research and development capacity,” says the report.
Roychowdhury said: “There is a need for zero emissions vehicle mandate. In addition to demand incentives like the FAME schemes to build consumer demand, manufacturers also need to be given a target to sell a minimum specified number of ZEVs as a share of their overall sales in the market.”
(Inputs from CSE and edited by Pratyusha Mukherjee)
