Indian Electric Vehicle Market - A Myth In The Making? | #MBAIITKanpur

The lack of infrastructure brings many other challenges as well. One of them is the theft of electricity by consumers. There are about 2 million electric two-wheelers and e-rickshaws in India. Due to the absence of charging stations and expensive power, many consumers use unethical means such as theft for charging their vehicles.  In Delhi alone, the theft due to the charging of EV vehicle is estimated to be more than 20 million dollars per year. Most of the Indian Discom companies are already struggling to keep their losses minimum and achieve the targets set under the UDAY scheme. If this trend continues to grow, this may give an extra financial burden and create an imbalance for the Discoms which will eventually be the liability of the state and central government as we have seen before UDAY.

The new subsidy program by the government of $1.4 billion may sound very promising but there may exist a flaw. Out of the total subsidy amount, only 10% is allocated for building the infrastructure to set up charging stations. This amount may not be sufficient considering the scale of the market and the consumer size in India.

On an average, EV vehicles run about 80-100 KMs in one full charge which may resist consumers from investing money. Also, Battery life and charging time may also act as a perspective challenge for the consumers. Therefore, the government, as well as the car manufacturers, need to substantially invest in research and development in order to improve the battery life as well as reduce charging time for the vehicles.

The future of the automobile industry is supported by numerous factors such as the availability of skilled labor at low cost and low-cost steel production. The industry has great potential for investment and creates direct and indirect employment to skilled and unskilled labor as well. Though the idea of the electric vehicle market appears very fascinating in the Indian context, but it is definitely not a smooth road to achieve!