India to Become No.1 EV Manufacturer in the World, Will Start Making Lithium-Ion Batteries by Year-End: Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has expressed confidence that India is moving towards manufacturing Electric Vehicles, and in due course will become the Number 1 EV Maker in the World. Gadkari said that lithium-ion batteries would be fully manufactured in the country as early as in the next six months, giving the much-needed push to India’s EV agenda.

He highlighted the fact that the government is also working to launch hydrogen fuel cell technology, which uses chemical reactions between hydrogen and oxygen to generate electrical energy, eliminating the use of fossil fuels. He also said that the government wants to encourage automakers to introduce flex-fuel engines in the country and that he is in the final stages of discussion with manufacturers in India.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced a partnership between state-run oil company Indian Oil and Phinergy, an Israeli start-up company to build Aluminium-Air systems in India.

As of now, EVs are a rarity in India where out of the 300 million vehicles most are motorcycles and 3-wheeler rikshaws. Even though the EV segment is booming, it is a niche within a niche in the country. The total 400,000 EVs registered in India in 2019 accounted for less than 0.2% of all vehicles.

This mostly stems from its high cost and practical hurdles including lack of sufficient charging stations. While overcoming the technological hurdles would take time, in order to overcome the economical hurdles EVs are exempt from road tax and registration fees along with are other incentives to encourage swapping of old gas and diesel vehicles for new electric ones.

Currently, EVs are a costlier alternative as compared to vehicles that operate on fuels like petrol and diesel. However, Gadkari affirmed that the EV prices will reduce drastically in the coming two years and that its cost will be on par with that of petrol or diesel cars soon.

In a bid to establish EV manufacturing in India, he had earlier urged Tesla to set up its manufacturing clusters in India, assuring that the Central Government would help it in the same. He also assured the company that it’ll be given freedom in developing its own vendors and that the government will also help the EV major in exporting vehicles to other countries.

“Day by day, the Indian product is also improving and within two years we will get the electric vehicles of Tesla’s standard in the Indian market. So, in the interest of Tesla, I suggest that they start manufacturing as early as possible. It will be beneficial for them,” Gadkari added.

EV manufacturing in India is not only a step forward from the environmental perspective, but the economical perspective as well. Establishing India as an EV manufacturer could further boost the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative while more economically viable options could make it a choice at par with conventional vehicles among consumers.

It is worth noting that India’s crude oil imports currently stand at Rs 8 lakh crore and are expected to double over the course of the next five years. Hence, it furthers the country’s requirement to explore other alternative and efficient modes of energy as e-mobility is also crucial to ensure that transport becomes free of pollution in the country.