Celebrating India’s EV journey

Today is World EV Day. The day is observed every year with special awareness campaigns being organised globally to educate people about the benefits of electric vehicles.

While China is the world’s largest EV market, India is the second largest and most promising. Driven by incentives by the Centre and the states, the adoption of EVs is gaining momentum. India’s EV sector is attracting increasing investments in battery technology, charging infrastructure and product options. Some of the biggest brands in the EV space include Tata Nexon in cars, the Mahindra Treo in three-wheelers and Hero Electric and Ola in scooters. In addition, there are a whole lot of startups that are working on various aspects of the EV eco-system.

In this article, Autocar Professional  takes you through India’s EV landscape with leaders in the segment commenting on sustainable mobility and a zero-emission future.

Meanwhile, a recent study by Castrol study has highlighted key insights on EV readiness for markets, carmakers, and consumers. Its global survey ‘Switching ON the rEVolution’ covering 10,000 consumers and 100 leaders from car manufacturers in 10 key global markets, including India suggests that 44 percent of consumers surveyed in India are considering an EV for their next vehicle purchase while 55 percent are still considering an ICE vehicle

Suman Mishra, Mahindra Electric Mobility

We celebrate India’s electrification journey. At Mahindra Last Mile Mobility, we are committed to promoting sustainable motoring with zero emission products. I am confident that with our collective efforts, we can enable a green and smarter tomorrow for India.

Warren Harris, CEO, Tata Technologies

Tata Technologies’ vision of Engineering a better world embodies our commitment to providing sustainable solutions especially in the rapidly growing Electric Vehicle Market. The transition to EV is also an opportunity and would also be synonymous with a move to connected vehicles enabled by ADAS and digital customer experience solutions. Tata Technologies offers end-to-end solutions for engineering, manufacturing support, and customer experience solutions for EVs globally. We have developed an elaborate EV ecosystem through alliances and partnerships across the world, including an alliance with MIH Consortium which enables us to leverage the EV ecosystem to deliver best value for our Customers.

Shailesh Chandra, MD, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility

World EV Day is indeed a special day for us, as we look back and reflect on our journey so far. We are proud to lead the EV market in India, with a lion’s share of 88 percent. As early entrants, we have shaped the market and seen it grow with Nexon EV and Tigor EV. We have over 40,000 Tata EVs plying on road. We have also established Tata UniEVerse, a one of its kind EV ecosystem, which is further propelling the EV adoption.

Tarun Mehta, C-Founder & CEO, Ather Energy

“This year’s World EV Day is particularly significant. EV demand has been increasing across the country in recent months. The transition to sustainable modes of transportation has begun well, largely led by electric two-wheelers. Electric vehicles are the single biggest hope for achieving a decarbonised world and faster adoption of EVs is the first step towards this goal.

KK Paul, Managing Director, TI Clean Mobility 
The World EV Day has evolved into a movement. Over the past few years, the Indian EV market has grown at an exponential rate. Government initiatives like FAME-II ,strict regulations on emissions along with rising consumer demand-awareness, skyrocketing fossil fuel prices, better energy density chemistries, evolving battery/charging infra and technology, unprecedented participation from big industry houses and startups are making it possible for the market EV ready. At TI Clean Mobility, our vision is to provide our customers with products and solutions that make economic and business sense and truly improve quality of life for all stakeholders.

Sulajja Firodia-Motwani, Founder & CEO, Kinetic Green

The electric vehicle market has gained a lot of momentum in India and we can see a disruption in the automotive industry. Not too far in the future, we see an enormous change in the way people and cargo move. Most important is the higher economic viability of electric vehicles because of which customers have started considering electric vehicle as their next purchase and they are flooding EV showrooms.

Diego Graffi, Chairman and MD – Piaggio Vehicles
At Piaggio, it is through innovation and our pursuit of excellence that we are building the EV infrastructure for India.  Strategic partnerships with SUN Mobility and Jio-bp allow us to deploy advanced battery technologies. These provide seamless mobility to our customers while substantially bringing down their expenses, providing a great driving range, and being easy on the environment.

Jyoti Malhotra, Managing Director, Volvo Car India.
On the World EV day let us join the movement to a future which is electric so as to offer sustainable e-mobility solutions to all.”

Siddharth Sikka is the Co-Founder at Battery Smart
Battery Smart works with key players in the industry, including battery manufacturers, OEMs, the driver community, and startups, to build a robust ecosystem that helps drivers easily shift to a more economical EV model. With our interoperable battery swapping solution and superior infrastructure, partners can swap their batteries in under two minutes and don’t waste valuable time waiting for their vehicles to charge. Till date, we have served over 3.5 million battery swaps while powering 100 million emission-free kilometers. We currently have 5,500+ vehicles on our network and 250+ live Swap Stations across 10 cities.

Satish Jain, Chairman, PMI ElectroMobility

We are a pioneer in providing zero-emission commercial vehicles powered by clean energy, contributing towards the future of the EV segment and helping achieve the sustainability target set out by the Government of India. PMI is committed to develop reliable electric buses replete with Made-in-India technology and Made-for-India capabilities.