Electric Vehicle Era has Begun, Why It Matters To Us?

The wheel was invented almost 5500 years back and it has been considered as one of the most important inventions of all time. Wheels helped humans not only to move much faster but carry heavy loads for transport. This led to more human interaction, exchange of ideas, and finally more trade. All these things brought prosperity.

Talking about prosperity, today developed countries have 600-800 cars per 1000 population while developing countries like India have 22 per 1000 population.

When we talk about Car, usually Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Vehicles comes to our mind (Petrol & Diesel) and we think Electric Vehicles (EVs) are recent phenomenon but do you know, EVs were introduced before ICE?

The journey of Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICE) can be attributed to Carl Benz’s invention of Motor Wagon in 1885, while initial Electric Vehicles were introduced almost 5 decade before ICE. In 1828, the Hungarian Ányos Jedlik invented an early type of electric motor, and created a small model car powered by his new motor and subsequently Scottish Inventor Robert Anderson also invented a crude electric carriage. Those were non-chargeable primary cells, but finally in 1881, French engineer Gustave Trouve made the world’s first full scale electric Car.

In fact, in the early 1900s, Electric Vehicles were selling double that of ICE. Then the question arises, how EVs got into oblivion within 2 decades.

Probable reasons why EVs lost against ICE:

• Low range: In the early 1900s, Electric Cars had low range (50-65 km). Rapid road construction urged people for long travel, which was not possible with Electric Cars
• Lack of Charging Stations: Absence of Electricity outside the city made Electric Car owners to carry spare Electric batteries which made vehicles heavier. (Lack of charging infrastructure was a challenge also at that point in time)
• Starter Motors Introduction: ICE Cars required hand cranking which was very difficult, but with Starter motor introduction in 1912, the problem was solved
• Fossil fuel supply: Due to widespread Petrol discovery and availability, prices of Petrol dropped hence ICE further gained momentum after 1912
   Mass Production: Due to mass production of ICE Between 1913-1918, the price became less than half of Electric Cars. (Ford Model T impact)

Let’s move fast forward to current times. In 2020, Electric Cars contributed 4.6% of worldwide Cars Sales while the same figure for India is just 0.25%. China sold approximately 300 times more Electric Cars than India. (12 lakh EVs sold by China against 4000 by India in 2020).

Indian government has set a target of 30% Electric Car Sales penetration in 2030.

Why Government of India is insisting for EV adoption? The main reasons are:

• Air Pollution: As per various reports, among top the 30 most polluting cities in the world, 22 are from India. Unfortunately, Delhi is being tagged as the most polluted capital in the world. Though there are many factors behind the pollution but automobile is most talked about
• Oil Import Bill: India imports approximately $100 Billion worth of Crude Oil which is expected to double in coming 6-7 years. That’s Rs 7500000000000. Imagine this much money goes out of the country every year and what comes is a liquid which turns into smoke after some kilometer of vehicle running
• EV Manufacturing: The world is moving towards EV. India has successfully made herself small Car production hub, now incase India is left behind in EV race, there can be potential manufacturing loss

Challenges behind EV adoption:

• Higher Cost: Currently EVs are around 50%-60% costlier than ICE
• Lack of Charging Infrastructure: Lack of public charging is worrying potential buyers
• Refueling/Recharging time: It takes ICE engine to get full tank fuel within 5 minutes, but fastest charging solutions in India might take hours to fully charge the battery
• Battery Safety: People are worried about safety concerns with batteries (especially in flood like situation, etc)
• Resale Value Concerns: EV resales value is still not known
• Home Charging Concerns: Many customers don’t have dedicated parking lot, hence home charging might be difficult

Despite so many challenges, why EV Sales would exponentially increase in the future:

• Batteries are getting cheaper: Battery prices have dropped more than 90% in last one decade, thus there is trend of EV price reduction
• Government Subsidy: Governments would increase taxes on ICE while giving subsidies on EVs, if price gap between EV and ICE would reduce to 20% vs current 50%-60%, EV adoption would exponentially increase
• Adverse fossil fuel price: Diesel and Petrol fuel prices might further increase in future prompting customers to shift towards EV. In Europe, now Road tax is as per CO2 emmission
• Better Driving Range: Thanks to advance research, battery density is increasing and range is increasing beyond 400 km
• Advantage over ICE: EVs have better acceleration and lower maintenance costs
• Increasing Charging Infrastructure: Charging Infrastructure will increase in coming years. More visibility of Chargers would give confidence to prospective buyers.
• Sundown of ICE: Many car manufacturers have announced fully switching to EV in coming years
• Higher EV visibility: More EVs on the road would give confidence to fence sitters

What are some EV related doubts in India?

• “We don’t have enough Electricity Production in India to cater demand of EVs”

It’s not correct. For the last 5 years, India has been a power surplus country. In fact, even in 2030, when every 3rd car sold in India would be Electric, the demand of Electricity because of EVs would increase by only 5-10% which is manageable.

• “Today we are importing fuel from Middle East and America, once we shift to EV, our dependencey for battery components would be on countries like China”

Yes its right but recycling of fossil fuel is not possible but luckily recycling of battery component is possible therefore if we can work on battery recycling, dependency on annual import would reduce.

• “We don’t have enough Electric Charging Stations”

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. In coming few years, you will see that even roadside Pan Shops and Dhabas (food joints) would offer charging facility. (The success of UPI/Digital money transfer is classical example of transformation).

• “India produces more than 70% electricity by burning fossil fuels. So EVs would consume electricity produced by polluting fossil fuels then how it’s helping cause to curb pollution”

Yes it’s right. Only things is that pollution in Major Cities might go down at the cost of some remote areas where the fossil fuel based electricity is being produced but silver lining is that Government of India has pledged to produce 500 Gigawatt Electricity through Renewable sources by 2030 which is currently just 100 Gigawatt.

We will see more actions on Electric Vehicles in the coming days. Welcome to exciting times!

Thanks a lot for reading!

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Author of the book titled “Power of Ignored Skills”

(Disclaimer: The article is the personal view of the author. Data is an approximation to make readers understand the logic)

Manoj Tripathi

Guest Author Mr Tripathi is author of book titled "Power of Ignored Skills"