Powering Mobility

Context:  Big push for charging infrastructure is a must for Electric Vehicles (EVs) penetration

Efforts to promote Electric Vehicles (EVs):

• Policy to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2030
• Strict emission laws.
• Preferential treatment FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles) and FAME 2 policies: There is preferential treatment for EVs in terms of tax rates (charged at 12 %).
• Charging infrastructure: The 2020 Budget made provisions to set up 2,600 public-charging stations in cities and another 1,700 along highways.

Constraints to the development of EVs:

• Inadequate charging infrastructure: A McKinsey report has estimated India will need 5 million public charging points by 2030.
• Environmental impacts: Power source for EVs are largely thermal and hence not clean.
• Safety concerns: EVs are safe mechanically, but they can catch fire if the battery is exposed to heat, and batteries can even explode.

Way Forward:

• Enhancing EV charging infrastructure:
  • Promote private investment: E.g. by incentivising apartment buildings to build charging stations.
  • Treat EV charging as a service: Thus enables anyone to set up and operate EV stations.
  • Provide lower power tariffs for EV charging.
  • Budgetary support for exponential growth.
  • Enhancing safety: Fire-safety departments and traffic police will need to be trained to neutralise such situations.
• Promote fuel-cell technology: As it is cleaner than EVs (The waste product in Hydrogen fuel cells is plain water).