About 13 lakh electric vehicles registered in country: Gadkari
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Gadkari said under Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) Phase-II scheme, 2,877 public EV charging stations have been sanctioned in 68 cities and 1,576 EV charging stations across 9 expressways and 16 highways.
Some investors recently spent some time with Indian automotive fund managers who are keenly watching the EV evolution and had three questions top of their mind:
- Which clean technology is the Indian Government really promoting: electric vehicles, Hybrid, CNG, Bio-fuels, Hydrogen? There are a lot of incentives Central and State Governments have rolled out to promote EVs. While there is noise about multiple technologies, the Government has clearly put its money on EVs.
- What will be the pace of passenger EV adoption in India?
As good as the pace of domestic EV supply: Companies have to produce cars. In the absence of EU-or-China-or-California style supply side regulations , reticent incumbent automotive manufacturers, prohibitive tariffs, and absence of electric car startups – pace of EV adoption will be slow. In comparison India is at 1% EV penetration while US > 6% and China and EU are at 15-20%.
- How will electrification change the structure of Indian Industry?
In the passenger vehicle segment, incumbent OEMs will trade market share but no major churn is expected. This is unlike in the US or China. In the two/three wheeler segment, chances for a few new players with solid products to rise and shine.Shoddy products will make way out once incentives subside and customers lose faith. Huge opportunity as well as big risk for the component industry – with India trailing global adoption and automotive component industry dependence on domestic OEM production, capability building will lag. In-house tech development or ability to stitch partnerships and buy technology with an initial focus on global markets -this is hard – will differentiate winners.