Executive Summary:

The Government of India signalled for a beginning of new era for mobility in India. In this new era,
Electric vehicles are the future of Indian transportation. The government aims at fully electrifying the
Indian transport system by year 2030.

In the light of above context, this project on “A study on India’s Transition to 100% electric mobility
by 2030” aims at providing an insight into India’s progress and challenges in achieving the target.
This report talks about the need of clean energy transportation in India, current policies introduced by
government to boost manufacturing and sales of Electric Vehicles, percentage sales of electric vehicle
in India and its future projections. It also briefs about recommendations and predictions by Industry
experts in achieving the target of 100% electric by 2030.

The data collected from sales of Electric Vehicles are used to find trends of the future sales of the
electric vehicle. Findings are made from the analysis of the sales of electric vehicle and supporting
policies introduced by the government to increase sales of Electric Vehicles in India.

Based on the findings found during the project period there are few challenges identified in achieving
the goal. Apart from these challenges there are few recommendations and advices from Industry
experts that industry and government can take in continued support of the faster deployment of
Electric Vehicles.

In the end we can say that a major parts of transport system of India will be taken over by Electric
Vehicle by the end of 2030. The people of India have to accept the Electric Vehicle model as their
daily part of transport system, which is being promoted by the government now and soon to be made
mandatory.

While the ideas put forward in this report are not exhaustive, they are intended to provide reader a
glimpse of India’s accelerated transition to electric mobility.
 Chapter 1: Introduction
(Electric Vehicle-EV the need for clean energy mobility in India)

Indian government is pushing for a faster adoption of electric vehicles to deal with the deadly air
pollution in its cities and curb Carbon emission from fossil fuels.
Widespread adoption of electric vehicle may contribute to elimination of problems such as
environmental pollution, global warming and crude oil dependency. However, the current market
penetration of Electric Vehicle is relatively low in spite of many governmental promotion policies and
subsidies.
Over the last decade, government launched several policies, schemes and initiatives for promoting and
adopting electric mobility solutions in India. These are mostly under the umbrella of National Mission
for Electric Mobility (the EV Mission) led by the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI). 
The plans and policies focused mostly on encouraging an increase in manufacturing of affordable,
reliable, and efficient EVs which also meet consumer price and performance expectations. This is
planned through industry-government collaborations, providing subsidies to manufacturers,
improving the charging infrastructure, and providing incentives to increase the demand of EVs in
India.

Reason for the shift to clean mobility:

 Air quality index (AQI) in many Indian cities indicate that the air is no longer healthy in these
cities. Automobile related pollution has been one of the causes for such unhealthy AQI.

 Aspects related to global warming needs a shift to automobile solutions that reduce / do not
produce greenhouse gas emissions.

 The need to reduce dependency on a fossil-fuel based economy. India's crude oil imports for
2020-21 was 196.5 million tons which costs around 62.2 billion USD.

 India is already the 5th largest automobile market in the world. So on India can also become a
global provider for clean mobility solutions and processes that are affordable and scalable.

 People living in some Indian cities are being affected by sound pollution. Some of the Indian
cities have the worst noise levels in the world. Electric vehicles may contribute to a reduction
in noise levels in these cities.

India is currently the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world. The transport
sector accounts for 13% of India’s energy related CO2 emissions (INCCA, 2010). India is committed
to reduce carbon emission intensity up to 33-35% by 2030 from the base year of 2005 and set the

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target of 40% non-fossil based electricity generation in the energy mix. This requires radical measures
to scale up the share of renewable energy (RE) besides the ongoing program of 175 GW renewable
energy by 2022, which expands to 500GW by 2030.
Generally EVs include a large range of vehicles from electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers
(rickshaws), cars and electric buses. In addition, plug-in electric vehicles can be classified into two
types: battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). BEVs have an
electric motor in place of combustion engine and use electricity from the grid stored in batteries. Plug-
in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) use batteries to power an electric motor and liquid fuel such as
gasoline or diesel to power an internal combustion engine or other propulsion source.

The electric vehicle industry in India is picking pace with 100% FDI possible, new manufacturing
hubs, and increased push to improving charging infrastructure. Federal subsidies and policy favouring
deeper discounts for Indian-made electric two-wheelers as well as a boost for localized Advanced
Chemistry Cell (ACC) battery storage production are other growth drivers for the Indian EV industry.
Moreover, in September 2021, a production-linked incentive scheme for the automotive sector was
approved by Cabinet to boost the manufacturing of electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
India reported sales of over 300,000 EV units in 2021.

Fig.1: Representation of an Electric Vehicle while charging.

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 Chapter 2: India’s roadmap to shift over to 100% electric by 2030

India’s large-scale transition across a wide spectrum of vehicles, will be difficult to achieve in the
short run. A phased strategy will be needed, typically comprising of a pilot phase, a scale up phase
and a self-propelled phase. The expectations during each of these phases would be as below:
▪ Pilot phase – where an initial set of vehicles, routes and organizations are identified for adoption of
electrification to create visibility and demonstrate the feasibility of electric vehicles. This phase has to
be short. It will primarily involve direct action by the Government and Government agencies to have
an initial nucleus of electric vehicles on the road.
▪ Scale-up phase - where incentives and other regulatory strategies will persuade market based action
that will lead to a higher number of electric vehicles getting registered till a tipping point is reached –
this could last for 3 – 4 years.
▪ Self-propelled phase - where the technology has established itself and people take to it in the
normal course Figure 2 shows the three phases, their timeline and guiding principles. Following that
specific actions for each phase are listed. Specific actions required during each phase would be the
following:

Fig.2: Phases of EV life cycle

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Pilot phase actions: This phase seeks to create a demonstration of the feasibility of EVs through
direct action by the Government and Government agencies. Some of these actions will aimed to create
demonstration during the pilot phase itself and others will aim to prepare for next phase, namely the
scale up phase. More specifically, the following actions need to be taken up during this pilot phase:
Have a nucleus of EVs on the road
▪ Register a pilot set of electric vehicles, primarily those to be used by Government agencies and use
them extensively to demonstrate the feasibility of EV use
▪ Identify a pilot set of routes for operating electric buses and have the State Transport Corporation
run such buses on these routes
▪ Identify a pilot set of organizations that can also run electric vehicles to enhance the demonstration
effect The criteria for selecting such pilot vehicles would be the following:
▪ Relatively longer usage in a day so that economies of the operating costs are captured adequately ▪
High visibility to create demonstration value
▪ Adequate vehicle clusters and operating cost savings to justify investments in captive battery re-
energizing facilities The criteria for selecting pilot routes for operating electric buses should be the
following:
▪ Choice of routes having travel distances that are within the range of a single charge, and with
adequate stop time at the end of a trip to top up the charge for the return trip
▪ Routes with high passenger flows
▪ Ideally routes without very steep gradients
The criteria for selecting pilot organizations to operate EVs in the pilot phase should be the following:
▪ Organizations with a large enough fleet of vehicles to justify investment in dedicated charging and
swapping facilities
▪ Organizations with adequate public dealing for their vehicles to be visible enough to create a
demonstration value.

Based on the above criteria, the pilot vehicles could include vehicles used by senior government
officials, other government owned vehicles, vehicles of municipal corporations, buses of the State
Transport Corporation, vehicles used by the local airport authorities, etc. Pilot routes for operating
electric buses should be those with a route length that falls within the range of a single charge and it
has enough stop time for a top up charge at the end of one trip. Ideally, such routes should have high
enough passenger volumes to enable a higher demonstration effect.

Specific actions required for operationalizing pilots are given below:

▪ The State Transport Corporations (STCs) should acquire some electric buses to operate on the
selected pilot routes. They could start with a small number and quickly move towards all their buses
on these routes being electric

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▪ Charging /swapping infrastructure should be set up at both ends of the pilot routes. Specific detailed
studies will have to commission to determine the number of charging points at each place, the type of
charging facility required and the specific location of the charging points, depending on the
availability of land and other factors. Awareness campaigns Lack of awareness is a big challenge. The
high capital costs and uncertain benefits of lower operating costs coupled with the concern relating to
the range need to be overcome. Much like the aggressive campaigns that persuaded people to shift to
LED bulbs, it will be critical to have large and targeted awareness campaigns on electric mobility.
Ambitious marketing efforts will be needed starting right from the pilot phase so that they have the
desired effect during the scale up phase.
Actions to be taken to design an impactful marketing campaign are:
▪ Hiring a marketing agency with a track record in nudging a positive change in consumer behaviour
▪ The marketing agency should pursue the following ideas:
Highlight monetary benefits - It will be most important to inform the consumers about the
savings in operating costs from electric vehicles. This should be followed by information on where
these vehicles can be bought, the charging and swapping infrastructure available, etc.
Understand consumer mind-set - Create targeted and customized advertisement campaigns
for users of – 2, 3 and 4 wheelers, and buses – because of the differences in consumer mind-sets and
budgets. This will require a market survey that first understands what and how much consumers know
about electric vehicles.
Spread messages through multi-media. The state government should use a combination of
platforms – social media, print media, advertisements on TV, radio, to shape public opinion on
electric vehicles.
What one can touch and feel, one can believe. To get consumers to believe the benefits of
electric vehicles, the government and industry together should hold live exhibitions (e.g. a road show
and a public festival on electric vehicles) where citizens drive electric vehicles, charge / swap
batteries and see how this technology works.
Institutional arrangements
One of the biggest challenges of a comprehensive transition towards electric mobility is the need for
coordinated action on several fronts. Unfortunately, the institutional fragmentation that exists does not
allow coordinated action for implementing the policy. This is more acute when the agencies involved
function under different levels of Government. The key agencies involved will be the State Transport
Department, the State Power Department, the local municipality, the State Police department, the
State Urban Development department, the State Industries department, and the State Transport
Corporation. It would be necessary to create a coordination mechanism that ensures that a
comprehensive action plan is implemented in a timely manner. For this, the State Government should
set up an Electric Mobility Mission, headed by a person of eminence, and well respected by all. This
mission should be the implementing arm of the government. The head of the Electric Mobility

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Mission would report directly to either the Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary of the state. The role
of the Mission will be to effectively coordinate implementation, and make things happen, as opposed
to an advisory role where experts only give advice but have no role in ensuring implementation. The
organizational structure of the Electric Mobility Mission will have to be lean to ensure streamlined
and rapid action. The first step in this will be in identifying the right person to head the Mission. The
mission should have full time members deputed by the departments of transport, power and urban
development, who would interface with the respective departments to ensure coordinated and timely
action. The Mission would also undertake the needed detailed studies to support implementation.
Create capacity for the EV manufacturing ecosystem
It will also be necessary to initiate action towards plugging skill gaps and developing a pool of talent
with the right skills for the electric mobility ecosystem. Towards this end, the following will need to
be taken up in the pilot phase:
▪ Conduct a skill-gap study for the state to understand what electric and shared mobility related skill
sets the workforce possesses as the baseline for a skilling strategy; emphasize on research and
development for electric technologies
▪ Introduce course curriculum in state schools and colleges on topics directly related to electric
mobility; this should be done in partnership with established universities in the country such as IITs
and NITs
▪ Begin revising course modules in the polytechnic institutes and aggressively market the new
trainings and courses on electric mobility.

Other actions required during the pilot phase

Signalling Demand
It will be necessary for the Government to take the initiative in signalling demand for EVs so that the
auto industry sees the commercial value in making the investment to manufacture EVs. This could be
done by the government mandating some category of vehicles to move to EVs over a graded time
frame. Some actions to signal demand for electric vehicles include:
▪ Identify public and private fleets which would be required to switch to electric vehicles so that this
signals potential demand for manufacturers
▪ Require corporate fleets of large conglomerates to go electric. Either they can purchase new electric
cars or hire fleet services from electric car operators. Simultaneously, publicly funded charging
stations set up in and around these locations would find many users and would easily achieve
commercial viability.
Electrification of taxi fleets operating at airports. Their parking spaces can be used to establish
charging facilities. ▪ Issuing mandates that require all para-transit vehicles such as three wheelers to
be EVs.
Re-inventing the power grid

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The power grid needs to be upgraded for handling the power demand that will emerge from an
increase in the number of electric vehicles. Actions to prepare the grid for electric mobility would
include:
▪ Study the load curve of the city as the basis for developing electricity tariffs and demand side
management programs such as Time of Day and Time of Use pricing. This is so that it is possible to
incentivize consumers to charge at lower prices during off peak hours. This will be beneficial for the
grid as well as it will help discourage demand during peak time
▪ Set-up bi-directional grid in which batteries of the vehicles can supply surplus power back to the
grid. If the power is generated through solar, the energy mix of the state will be even cleaner. It will
also reduce the dependence of cities on other states for purchasing power. This will stabilize the grid
during peak demand and prevent crashes. Vehicle to grid connection will allow in adequately
responding with Time of day or Time of use pricing which will nudge consumers to charge vehicles
during non-peak hours.
▪ Install smart meters which can record electricity usage by consumers for different times of the day.
▪ Use the data generated from smart meters to study the electricity use behaviour of residential and
commercial customers and feed this data to create demand side management strategies for grid
impacts.
Setting up a wide network of charging and swapping infrastructure
Government will have to take the lead in setting up an initial set of charging and swapping facilities
so that it encourages purchase of EVs. Actions to be taken:
▪ As a starting point, set up charging facilities at government offices and other commercial centres,
parking lots and residential locations public transport depots and vehicle fleet depots would also be
good locations, especially to serve dedicated vehicle fleets.
▪ Amend building by-laws and codes that are set by the municipal bodies and housing department to
allow the creation of charging points in residential and commercial buildings. E.g. the electrical load
permitted in buildings will have to be amended to set up charging points for cars and two wheelers in
the residential buildings.
▪ Use major highways running through cities to set up charging stations. This will depend on the
geographical layout of the cities. As per the guidelines from the Ministry of Power, Cities should
create charging and swapping stations every 25 km along the highways and ensure access for
consumers
▪ Convert the existing parking spaces in to ‘E-parking’. Examples of such spaces could be the parking
lots at airports, shopping malls and multi-floor parking at metro stations.
Manufacturing and Workforce skill development
Manufacturing electric vehicles in India will give rise to new industries. Some states have an existing
manufacturing ecosystem. Thus far the state of Kerala doesn’t have a strong foothold in auto
manufacturing. But as new industries open up, so will new employment opportunities. The state could

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reap these with a workforce skilled to readily contribute to the new value chain. Availability of skilled
labour will also attract businesses to invest in the cities or in the vicinity. Actions for growing EV
manufacturing base should comprise:
▪ Assessing which directly and indirectly linked industries already exist in the city or in vicinity.
▪ Tie-up with manufacturers of electric motors and drives, which have a wide range of application in
electric vehicles and preferably form joint units with state level public sector undertakings in the state
▪ Partner with bus manufacturers through incentives that invite them to set up a manufacturing hub in
the state.
▪ Bring together industry and academia by creating research parks for collaborative work on electric
mobility
▪ Create new skills centres which drive on collaboration between the industry, academia and the
government. For instance, Introduce coursework in the state engineering colleges and universities
which teach graduates analytical and technical skills that will be needed in a number of jobs directly
and indirectly linked to electric vehicles
▪ Create training modules to upgrade the capacity of the existing workforce especially in the STUs,
Transport, Power departments in the state.

Financing
Transitioning to electric mobility will require innovative financing solutions. These will be required
for:
▪ Financing charging and swapping infrastructure.
▪ Purchase of vehicles
These strategies will assist the state in creating a minimum-subsidy electrification roadmap. The
primary goal of allotting subsidies is to help kick start the market to a stage where private companies
are hedged from the risks that come with sinking money in a new technology. Subsidies should,
therefore, be for strictly an initial phase. Public investment in charging and swapping infrastructure
and deploying electric vehicles will bear the fruits thereafter. Then the market will pace up; there
would be enough demand from consumers for the private players to respond.

Financing charging and swapping infrastructure

In the pilot phase, an initial set of the charging/ swapping facilities will be set up through public
funding. A certain threshold number, which will depend from city to city, should be set up either with
public financial support or by public agencies.
Financing purchase of vehicles
There could also be innovative business models that can achieve the same objective. Some
possibilities would be the following:

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▪ OEMs could lease the EVs instead of selling them. There could be a lease fee, that is equivalent to
the saving in operating costs and the loan repayment installment.
▪ EVs could be sold to a customer but batteries, which are a significant component of the cost, could
be leased. This will help bring down the capital cost to levels similar to ICE vehicles and lease fees
could be paid out of savings in operating costs
▪ An interest subsidy could be a way of reducing the cost of capital and could be extended in the
initial years as a way of attracting people to the use of EVs.
The State could consider setting up an EV promotion fund that can supplement the incentives offered
under the FAME-2 scheme and offer a mix of low interest loans and grants. These could include:
▪ Loan support to cover the higher capital costs of electric vehicles, to be serviced through savings in
operating costs – these would be most useful for vehicles like taxis, autorickshaws and buses
▪ Grant or low interest incentives for investment in charging and swapping infrastructure to reduce the
risk of low demand in the early years of the transition
▪ Additional funding to government departments and other government agencies to procure electric
vehicles in place of ICE vehicles for government use
▪ Viability gap grant support for private sector initiatives
▪ Grant support needed for market awareness campaigns, skill development and capacity building
▪ Financial support needed to promote investments in manufacturing EVs and the ecosystem for EVs.
▪ Grant support to the STU for procuring electric buses to convert buses on pilot routes to entirely
electric
A formal scheme that includes potential sources for this fund the mechanism for disbursal will need to
be formulated.
Scale up phase
The scale up phase will require a bouquet of incentives and other regulatory measures that persuade
market-based action towards electric mobility. The pilot phase would have created enough of a
demonstration for such marketbased action provided incentives and regulatory disincentives provide
the needed nudge. Persuading vehicle owners to adopt electrification will either need financial
incentives to make the shift attractive or will need certain regulatory restrictions on petrol/diesel
fueled vehicles. A shift based on persuasive incentives and limited restrictions will be less disruptive
and will find wider acceptance. This will also need intensive marketing and publicity to encourage the
shift. Incentives should aim to make the Total Cost of Operations of EVs comparable to that of ICE
vehicles and could be by way of:
▪ Reduction in the capital cost through capital subsidy or lower taxes
▪ Reduction in electricity charges, especially for off peak use
▪ Public investment in charging facilities and low electricity tariffs
▪ Free parking and other preferences of this nature

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Regulatory disincentives could be in the form of limiting the number of permits issued to petrol/
diesel vehicles and a significantly higher fee for them vis a vis an electric vehicle.
A bouquet of these incentives needs to be designed and aggressively marketed. This will go a long
way in accelerating the adoption of EVs during the scale up phase.
The types of vehicles that will be good to target for electrification during the scale up phase will be
the following:

Buses
While the pilot phase would convert some of the buses operated by the State Transport Corporations,
the scale up phase should target other public bus services, through a combination of financial
incentives and permit conditions. In particular, this should target buses operating on high density
routes.
Two-wheelers
To promote the electrification of two wheelers during the scale up phase, the state could:
▪ First, promote e commerce delivery businesses who use scooters and motorcycles to deliver goods at
the doorstep of consumers. These vehicles could use swappable batteries. The delivery businesses
could either by themselves, or through aggregation with other similar businesses, set up captive
swapping facilities.
▪ Second category could be electric bikes that offer last mile connectivity to metro stations, bus
terminals, railways stations and water jetty stations/piers
Shared car fleets
Some segments of vehicles that could adopt electric vehicles would be the following:
▪ Airport taxi fleet owned by the regional airports.
▪ Ride-hailing companies such as Ola and Uber
▪ Employee transport vehicles
Three-wheelers
Three wheelers can also be persuaded towards electrification through:
▪ Financial subsidy to cover a part of the higher capital cost
▪ Easier registration and issue of permits – for some ecologically sensitive and heritage areas only
electric three – wheelers may be permitted
▪ Financial support for conversion from ICE to electric
Urban freight vehicles
A good candidate to start electrification of freight vehicles will be the three wheelers that carry small
cargos. Yet another candidate in this could be the small goods vehicles used by municipal bodies.

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Potential locations for charging and swapping batteries for these vehicles would be the freight hubs.
The government via the State electricity board or an energy company could help in installing an initial
set of charging outlets for these vehicles.
Personal motor vehicle owners
Cost sensitive personal motor vehicle owners, who have relatively longer travel distances in a day,
can be persuaded to take up electric vehicles. This will also need intensive campaigning and
investments in a wider network of charging / swapping facilities. Catalyzing the setting up of a
distributed charging network across the city would add to the attractiveness and confidence, even
though most personal vehicles can be charged at home. Catalyzing a battery swapping industry,
especially at existing petrol stations, will add to the confidence of personal motor vehicle owners. In
setting up such facilities, it would be good to look at the best options for re-energizing different types
of vehicles.
Self-propelled phase
In the self-propelled phase, all components of the electric mobility eco-system will function as sound
business propositions and should not need any special treatment vis a vis other technology. The role
of the government will primarily be on enforcing policies and mandates and amend them if needed
such that the electric mobility market is competitive and fair. The state should focus on periodically
revising its technology standards so that the best available technology is put to use. However,
concessions to enable a new technology to compete with an older one should not be necessary.
Learnings from the preceding stages will drive the actions in this last phase.
SUMMARIZING THE THREE PHASES OF THE ROADMAP
Table 1 summarises the actions required during each of the phases of the electric mobility roadmap. It
gives a summarised view of the city’s targets, timeline, and key steps to grow the EV-Infrastructure
and EV-Ecosystem in the city.
Table 1- Summary of Electric mobility roadmap
Phase Pilot Scale-Up Self-Propelled
Timeline (assuming 2021- 2022 (2 years) 2023 – 2027 (5 years) 2028 onwards
beginning from 2021)
Key principle Demonstrate Introduce a bouquet of Electric vehicle
feasibility of EVs incentives and technologies have
through direct regulatory measures to entered main stream;
Government action persuade market-based Focus on sustaining
action growth and bringing in
the most up to date but
context-driven
technologies
Actions Convert buses Operationalize the Enforce regulations

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 operated on selected incentives and and safety standards
routes, by Government regulatory measures Explore secondary
owned companies and the plans already application of
Introduce EVs into the announced Monitor batteries; by this stage
Government fleet, progress and evaluate a generation of retired
especially vehicles of if other measures are EV batteries would be
senior officers Launch needed ready for use for
an awareness stationery purposes
campaign Design a
bouquet of incentives
and regulatory
measures for
introduction during the
scale up phase Signal
demand by
announcing future
plans. Review
workforce skill gaps
and launch a skill
development plan
Establish a limited
network of charging
facilities for the EVs
introduced during the
pilot phase Set up an
EV Mission Design
and set up an EV
promotion fund
EV-Manufacturing Tie-ups with Form partnerships
Ecosystem international with international
manufacturers of players while
electric vehicles and simultaneously
its components building PSUs in the
state Focus on
building industrial
strength in vehicle
manufacturing but also

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 individual vehicle
components

Chapter 3: Progress Status and Milestone of the transition plan

India is the fifth largest automobiles market in the world, with 3.82 million units sold in 2019. In the
year 2021, 3,29,190 Electric Vehicles were sold in India, representing a 168% increase over last
year’s sales of 1,22,607 units. Following schematic highlights the categorization of automobiles in
India.

EVs have emerged out as a promising alternative that could help in mitigating the adverse
environmental impacts caused by conventional vehicles.
Although the numbers of EVs are rising in the country, however, the adoption across vehicle
categories is uneven. The sections provided below aims to explore the possible reasons for such
observed phenomena.

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Approximately 79% of the EV addition is from three-wheeler segment, followed by two wheelers
(17%); the four-wheeler segment contributes only 3% towards the overall EVs on the road.

Two-wheeler EV segment
Although the share of two-wheeler EVs is merely 17% of the overall EV population in the country, it
is likely to follow the similar trend as it is observed in conventional vehicle market today. So far,
concerns around new technology, relatively high prices of EVs (for same performance compared to
ICE vehicles), range anxiety, adequate availability of charging facilities etc. have prevented the
uptake of two-wheeler EVs. However, with the maturity in EV technology, price parity achievement
and development of the peripheral infrastructure, the share of two-wheeler EVs is expected to
increase. OEMs are also increasingly considering the two-wheeler EV market as an attractive avenue
and therefore many start-ups such as Ather, Revolt, Okinawa, Evolet etc. have entered this space. The
entry of conventional 2W players such as TVS, Bajaj and Hero in the EV segment have further
proven the attractiveness quotient of this market. Snapshot of players in two-wheeler EV segment
along with their range of products and prices is summarised below.

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It is evident from above that as the segment is evolving, the companies are offering varieties of
models with competing price ranges to the customer. This is a good indicator for future prospect of
2W EVs.
Maharashtra accounts for the highest number of 2W EV presence among other Indian states. Thirteen
states in the country account for 95% of all India 2W EV population.

Three-wheeler EV segment
Three-wheeler EV segment contributes to 79% of overall EV presence in India. Currently, this
segment is driving the electrification of the Indian automobile industry. Such high population of 3W
EVs could be described through following reasons:

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(1) Three-wheelers are not only a mode of transportation but serve as the lifeline for several people
formally / informally employed by their use.
(2) 3 W offers better value proposition in the shared mobility space. A ride as low as Rs.10 attracts
passenger to take ride in E-Rickshaw18
(3) There is a growing need for last-mile connectivity with increase of shared mobility through Rail-
Metro, Buses etc. (E-rickshaws tend to bridge the gap between demand and supply of last mile
connectivity in the peripheral areas and areas far off from urban connectivity network). Companies
such as Kinetic Green and SmartE are working with government agencies to offer their e-rickshaws
for the last mile connectivity from metro stations. (4) The cost of maintenance of 3W EV is almost
reduced by 80 per cent compared to an ICE vehicle
(5) Driving on smaller and known route – no range anxiety issues (which otherwise is a concern for
other electric vehicle categories).
(6) E-rickshaws are quieter, cleaner and cheaper to maintain than a traditional auto rickshaw. They
also are less strenuous than cycle rickshaws, which require manual peddling.
Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest number of 3W EV population among other states in the
country. Cumulatively, nine states contribute to ~96% of total 3W EV population of the country.

Four-wheeler EV segment
The four-wheeler EV segment contributes to only 3% share of the country’s overall EV population.
There are limited models available in EV 4W segment. However, major OEMs have planned to
introduce more EV models suitable for Indian market in the future which could possibly increase
competition in the market and boost their adoption.

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Similar to the other EV vehicle segments, high prices are a major concern for large scale adoption of
4W EV. One of the key reasons for high EV prices is limited presence of ancillary manufacturers in
India. Most of the auto-parts of these vehicles are imported, with China being the major supplier of
EV components to India, which leads to the increase in prices of EVs. Hence, developing local
manufacturing hubs for EV components could play a major role in bringing down the EV costs in the
future and enable the sector to be resilient to supply disruption due to geo-political disturbances. As
on July 2020, West Bengal has the maximum number of 4W EV presence in the country, followed by
Tamil Nadu.

E-buses
Electric buses are the least adopted vehicle segment among EV, in India. However, with the growing
focus of the Government of India to transform the public transportation landscape in the country,

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several players have ventured into this arena and have started launching their electric bus models. An
illustrative list of such players are mentioned below:

By observing the sales trend of e-buses in Indian states, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Himachal
Pradesh could be identified as the early adopters of e-buses.

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Electric Vehicles @2030
The Government of India has targeted 30% EV penetration by 2030. However, the momentum
required to achieve the target would require transformational and radical measures to be adopted by
Policy makers in this space.
“As per NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) projected EV sales penetration of 80% for
two and three-wheelers, 50% for four wheelers, and 40% for buses by 2030”
The ambitious target of adoption of EVs, if achieved, would result in savings of 474 MTOE of oil
(approx. INR 15.21 Tn) annually and would cut down CO2 emission by ~846.3 Mn Tons annually

Chapter 4: Factors impacting EV transition in India.

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