According to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), adoption of electric vehicles (EV) in India has been hamstrung by uncertain policy support mechanisms, lack of access to reliable charging service, unreliable power supply and inability of discoms to invest in charging stations due to poor financial health.
It is only now that state-run companies are testing the waters with scattered pilot-size EV charging projects. The government too has revised regulations to enable private investment in charging infrastructure recently but lack of coordination among its different wings, unreliable electricity supply and lack of demand due to the low number of EVs hamper private investment.
EVs will make up only 7% of annual vehicle sales in India by 2030. Sales will gather pace after this and reach 27% of annual vehicle sales by 2040, by which time 13% of passenger vehicles in the country will be EVs.
Unlike China, there were just under 6,000 highway-capable passenger EVs on India’s roads at the end of 2017 when annual sales stood at 2,000 units. By 2022, however, the report sees EV sales rising to 30,000 units a year, driven primarily by government and corporate procurement program.
Reference- Bloomberg Report, TOI