Electric Vehicles in India: An Enquiry into the Policy Landscape

Abstract

In recent years there has been a tremendous drive toward electrification of traditionally internal combustion vehicles, especially in passenger automobile industry. The shift towards electric mobility in certain countries occurred as a policy driven move whereas in other places it was a consumer driven move. Despite the driver, there are key considerations that prohibit any new technology from adoption, the most intuitive of such barrier would be the economic cost of the new technology along with the perception of the consumers (present and prospective) towards its utility. Given the Government of India’s ambitious 2032 target of prohibiting sales internal combustion driven vehicles, the study estimates the cost difference between electric vehicles and internal combustion vehicles across various vehicle category as well as perception of the population in urban centres of India about these vehicles. The study found that presently unlike the industry rhetoric, electric vehicles aren’t cost competitive across all segments, despite being in few, more importantly the population’s perception of cost is not in sync with the realities. Apart from cost perception the respondents also viewed electric vehicles less favourably for performance, ease of use and other vehicular parameters. On the basis of these findings a new policy design was suggested, to be operated alongside the present policies to achieve the 2032 target.