Going through many articles, discussions, and reports on electric vehicles mainly talk about the benefits of EV and push aside serious questions. For instance, any idea about the best of India’s interest in adopting EVs? Or the current EV technology is enough? Or using EVs will make us dependent on China?

People beat the bush around but the answers to such sidestep questions are straightforward. This article is about understanding the seriousness of the matter. 

What are EV’S?

Electric Vehicles are those vehicles running on batteries rather than running on gasoline. EVs turned out to be an environment saviors due to their zero emissions of pollutants but it is also criticized due to less environmental benefits and limited in range than it is claimed. Commonly known as BEVs i.e battery electric vehicles or EVs i.e electric drive vehicle. 

History of EV’s

The credits of constructing of the first practical EVs in the year 1834 is given to Thomas Davenport, which was further developed into the two-passenger electric car in 1847, and followed by an electric car in 1851 that could travel up to 32 km/h. 

In the early 20th century the nickel-iron battery commonly known as The Edison Cell was developed in 1900 and it became a key factor in the development of electric vehicles. In the year 1900 electric vehicles had shared a good business in the car market but by the 1920s these cars lost out to gasoline. But automakers didn’t give up and again began working on electric vehicles in the year 1960s and the research continued during the 1970s and beyond. Due to all the efforts, the results came to be a handful available electric automobiles capable of driving between 113 to 160 km before recharging commercially. At the beginning of this era, only a few numbers of auto manufacturers were exploring to produce commercially but in the year 2006, major manufacturers were shifting their attention to fuel-cell electric vehicles and hybrid electric which produce power efficiently by running on fuel cell or gasoline engines. Speaking of which the auto manufacturers understand the components of an EVs that includes power controller, motors and most importantly energy storage cells. Transmission of such energy in the electrical form helps in eliminating the need for a mechanical train and reducing the pollution. And better use of a motor as a generator through special braking design is called regenerative braking. By which the system feeds energy back to the storage system each time the brakes are used. 

EVs in India

In 1996, India’s first electric three-wheeler, Vikram SAFA, was developed by Scooters India Limited in Lucknow. At that time manufacturing an electric vehicle was considered as a novelty, but nowadays there is an alarming need to shift to clean mobility, given to the fact of harm vehicular pollution is inflicting on the environment. Day by day these EVs are becoming progressively popular in India due to numerous reasons such as cheaper fuel cost, eco-friendliness, lower maintenance expenses, etc. and to give a boost to EVs the center has taken many initiatives. As in 2013 the government of India pioneer a National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 which aims to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country. To achieve the aim, in 2015 he Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India known as FAME was launched for two years under Phase-I, which was eventually extended up to March 31, 2019. 

The Government’s decision to announce the FAME 2 scheme with an aim to shift market more towards EVs laid down an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore due to which the industry observed the growth of 124% increase in selling 56,000 units in the financial year 2018 as against 25,000 units in the financial year 2017. But as per the Society of Manufacturers of EVs in the financial year 2018, the sale of electric cars came down to 1,200 units from 2,000 units in the financial year 2017, showing a drop of 40%. 

Recently, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reveal the Union Budget 2019 in which she specifically mentioned about EVs in order to aim electric vehicle manufacturing hub. And after a long wait of incentives and subsidies on EVs, finance minister finally helmed focus on constructing EV infrastructure. Understanding the need of EVs, the finance minister proposed a scheme to invite global companies to set up manufacturing plants with advanced technology including charging infrastructure and lithium storage batteries as batteries are the most critical part of EVs. This new scheme helps the country in providing manufacturing plants with investment-linked income tax exemptions. She also added the fact that certain parts used in EV manufacturing would also be exempt from customs duty. In addition to it, the finance minister also proposed income tax deductions of INR 150,000 on the interest amount for electric vehicle loans. This would make EVs more attractive for the consumers. And she also made sure that government the GST council to reduce the tax in EVs to 5% from the existing 12%.

The finance minister also noted down the issues like lack of low domestic EV parts manufacturing capacity and proper EV charging infrastructure, also the concern of companies to use their space in setting up their own charging infrastructure and heavy amounts that are invested on importing key EV components. With unboxing of the new Union Budget, the EV Industry appreciated the fact that government accelerated promotion and production of domestic battery cell manufacturing and assembly capacity will boost the EV industry growth.