What Steps Are The Automobile Industries Taking To Electrify The Overall Mobility Space In India?
India is geared up to set up the finest examples of next-gen industry technology that is poised to bring ease of life to your doorstep. Many optimists believe that India’s gold mine other than the IT industry is yet to explore. Seeing the vast amount of disruptions across many sectors is just a good sign for a prosperous nation but when it comes to specific – the mobility sector intends to outperform all other sectors because of smart technology.
It is obvious, the world needs a credible solution to fight climate change from the world’s biggest democracy, and India, under PM Narendra Modi, is doing the right thing to make way for the implantation of electric vehicles in a massively triumphant way. Whether it is climate change or dependence on fossil fuels, India needs to come out actively to showcase a striking example with electric mobility that can be followed by other developing nations. Right at the helm of COP26 in Glasgow, auto industries can expect some big reforms to be laid by the government of India.
The rise of electric mobility is unavoidable throughout the world, including India. While numerous manufacturers have begun to roll out their EVs, there are a number of hurdles ahead, which will necessitate more contributions from the auto industry.
Enabling infrastructure to streamline the rollout of EVs is the main challenge where many riders and users still show hesitancy towards electric mobility. Due to the lack of infrastructure solutions in India, EVs are an expensive affair while a price, range, and mileage rule rips apart customer experience. Tata Power, for example, has become the first commercial entity to set up numerous charging stations in the country to allow users to comfortably overrun the range anxiety. Similarly, Mahindra and Statiq are two other entities that are pushing for favorable charging stations on the highways to help customers buy EVs with peace of mind. Such giant steps from auto and allied industries will not only help build a sustainable infrastructure solution for EVs in India but will also reduce the overall price of the EVs in the long march.
The push towards efficient infrastructure solutions has also seen efforts from the government of India. The projected 2,700 charging stations have been allotted $139,000, representing a significant portion of the entire $1.4 billion budget, which also includes incentives over the next three years under the government's primary EV initiative, 'Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME).' Such incentives can bring exponential change on the ground as they will stimulate auto industries to move to indigenous solutions. Anything indigenous means a further reduction of the price of EVs. Few semiconductor industries, fearing tough actions and regulations from the Chinese regime, from Taiwan and Japan already started their operations in India, which can add more smart technology solutions to the indigenous EV programs sought by local automobile industries.
On the backdrop, the automobile industry is constantly toiling its hands on advanced battery technology either with traditional Lead-Acid batteries or advanced Li-ion batteries. But, the issue of the high price of batteries is still a problem that industries have to think of. The 1st-generation batteries are, no doubt, expensive for lower and middle-class commuters but if industries are able to accommodate technology to make smaller and efficient batteries, then this problem can be addressed acutely.
On the energy part, Nexcharge, a label of Exide Leclanche Energy, a JV between Exide Industries, India's largest lead-acid storage battery maker, and Leclanché SA, is looking to provide end-to-end solutions based on Li-ion batteries of diverse proportions to a diverse segment of industry and utility markets. Prantij, in Gujarat's Sabarkantha region, is already India's largest facility, with fully automated Li-ion battery pack assembly lines and cell testing facilities.
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has already invested heavily in their Jamnagar plant to set up futuristic energy storage solutions for which they have tied up with a couple of foreign firms. This will pave the way for next-generation electric mobility that was long sought by the auto industry.
In India, fuel cell technology is still in its infancy, with the country lacking the necessary capabilities in order to use fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV). Late last year i.e. in 2020, the country's first domestically manufactured FCEV had thriving trials while Indian Oil recently announced that it was working with collaborating automakers to render hydrogen commercially viable for FCEV programs.
