The
Government of India intends to have EV sales penetration of 30 per cent for
private cars, 70 per cent for commercial vehicles and 80 per cent for two and three-wheelers
by 2030 as there is an immediate need to decarbonise the transport sector. This
is in line with the Prime Minister’s announcement at the COP-26, that India
will achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070.
In
India, the second phase of the FAME India Scheme 2022 aims to support, through
subsidies, approximately 7000 e-buses, 5 lakh e-3 wheelers, 55000 e-4 wheeler passenger
cars, and 10 lakh e-2 wheelers. Attractive economics and push by governments
has already increased the demand for EVs substantially, and the industry is set
to grow to USD 150 billion by 2030, according to estimates by RevFin Services –
a financial technology (FinTech) digital lending platform focused at increasing
EVs' adoption for under-banked and underserved.
Many brands and start-ups are venturing
into the market with EVs to transform the automobile industry landscape in
India; a few examples:-
Electron EV,
based out of the Bay Area in the USA and Hyderabad, India was founded in 2018
with a single-minded vision: Bringing the power of EV platforms to light,
medium, and heavy duty commercial vehicles. Their mission is to raise ‘N’ to
the power of ‘EV’. Electron EV plans to introduce its proprietary EV technology
through its electric vehicles and end-to-end mobility solutions for markets
like India, South East Asia, Australia, and Europe. Also, the founders envision
a net-zero carbon infrastructure from well to wheels. They believe that
battery-electric powertrains will be the most efficient to manufacture and own
in the long run.
Volta Trucks
was founded in 2017 to accelerate the transition to full electric trucks.
Sweden-based all-electric commercial vehicle start-up, in September 2020
introduced its Volta Zero – acclaimed to be the world’s first purpose-built
full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle.
Volta
began the development of the production vehicle in January 2021, and by
December 2021, the first road-ready Design Verification prototype was
completed. Before the start of series production in late 2022, production verification
vehicles will be built for customer evaluation in the middle of 2022 at the
Volta Trucks contract manufacturing site in Steyr, Austria.
Infraprime
Logistics Technologies, started in 2017, the company is developing
electric heavy duty commercial goods carriers which have wide ranging
applications in mines, ports, infrastructure development, construction, and
inter-warehouse goods transportation. Infraprime have pioneered several
industry first initiatives including just-in-time delivery of construction
material, deployment of electric trucks, roll-out of driver app with widespread
adoption, while minimizing incidences of miscommunication and delay.
Tadpole Projects,
a startup electric-mobility company incubated at Technology Innovation Hub
(TIH) for Cobotics, of IIT Delhi - the only home grown company retrofitting ICE
to EVs. Launched in August 2020, Tadpole Projects is the pioneer in
retrofitting ICE cars and aims to address issues around fossil-fuel-based
vehicles, scrapping policy, and expensive vehicles by retrofitting, thus making
renewable mobility accessible to everyone. Headquartered in Delhi, Tadpole
Projects performs R&D and advanced testing of vehicles incubated under
IIT-Delhi.
Tadpole
Projects accomplishes stellar feat of converting, first Mercedes Benz C-Class
from ICE to EV.
REE Automotive
is an electric platform leader reinventing e-mobility. Unrestricted by legacy
thinking, REE has developed the next-generation EV platform, which is entirely
flat, scalable and modular, providing customers full design freedom to create
the broadest range of EV and autonomous vehicles for current and future
applications. Its services include last-mile delivery, MaaS, light to
medium-duty EV logistics and robo taxis.
HOP Electric
Mobility, India's fastest-growing electric vehicle manufacturer, is
a successful mandate holder of the Government of India's ambitious Production
Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for Auto. Working on the B2C and B2B market with
three E’s - electric, energy, environment; HOP provides a line-up of electric
two-wheelers (e-scooters - HOP LEO & HOP LYF, and soon to be launched
high-speed electric-motorcycle HOP OXO).
Furthermore,
HOP Electric Mobility has also embarked on its multi-battery modular platform's
design and engineering journey. The company is developing Gen 2 Smart Batteries
and Swapping stations. It will roll out two new products on the new platform
supported by Gen 2 batteries and a swapping station in FY23.
EVage is
India’s leading all-electric, purpose-built commercial vehicle OEM that, by
combining the creativity of aeronautical engineering with the expertise of
automotive design, has transformed the transportation sector. The company has
developed ground-breaking products like the single modular skateboard capable of
building multiple vehicle types, a lightweight yet tough exoskeleton covered
with an innovative space-grade composite material, and ultra-stable and
fast-charging batteries with advanced chemistry. All of them are produced in
their incredibly effective Modular Micro Manufacturing factory setup. Their
“Exoskeleton Structure” acts as a practical standard architecture for trucks,
vans, SUVs, and delivery cars. The company presently employs about 50 people
with experience in the automotive and aviation industries at its R&D and
robotics centre in Punjab, India.