A sound policy regarding electric vehicles can be a game changer

Speaking at the 1st Global Mobility Summit in New Delhi last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched upon the mantra of 7Cs: common, connected, convenient, congestion-free, charged, clean and cutting-edge for addressing the mobility needs in the coming times. The underlying theme of his speech was the importance of the fact that cities need a paradigm shift in the way they plan mobility. In this context, the words, charged, clean and cutting-edge, play a significant role in the future of mobility because in the motorised segment, these mean electric.

Electric vehicles(EV) may sound futuristic but not anymore, because last year, electric cars surpassed the 30 lac mark worldwide. In addition, 3 crore two wheelers and 1 lac buses were sold last year, a majority of which were in China. This was due to the fact that the country is actively embracing electric vehicles, because of climatic and mobility-based reasons. Going by reports, it is expected that capital cost of EVs will be equivalent to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2025. This means that in less than 7 years, EVs will be cost-effective than petrol or diesel vehicles, as the cost of operations is already much lower than ICE vehicles.

On the mobility front, a lot is expected from the national government, but the states have more power and ability to make change on the ground. There are multiple things that states can do to transform urban mobility but one thing that will surely make a massive dent, especially in a state such as Haryana, is the electric vehicle. This is because of multiple reasons; but here are three key reason why a good EV policy can be a game changer for Haryana.

Improvement of Air Quality

As predicted in my column a couple of weeks back, air quality in Gurugram has now become ‘very bad’. Unfortunately, the quality will degrade further with the onset of the winter season, coupled crop burning in the neighbouring areas as well as with the Diwali celebrations. While there is no study that points to the sources of this pollution, as per UEinfo*, motor vehicles exhaust is the largest contributor to air pollution and responsible for 30% of PM 2.5 concentration in greater Delhi’s ‘airshed’, including Gurugram. Therefore, reducing vehicle-exhaust emission will not only improve the overall air quality but also significantly reduce local air pollution. Electric vehicles have zero tail-pipe emission, and hence they will have a tangible impact on the air quality.

Creation of More Jobs

Gurugram is the hub of automobile manufacturers, both big and small, and they provide employment to thousands of people from all over the country. With the growth of population and continued distress in the farm sector, the state government needs to look at new sectors that will provide employment opportunities in the state. New sectors, such as electric vehicles manufacturing, can provide the new employment opportunities for the masses. In fact, when solar energy started making progress in the United States of America, it was met with a lot of sceptics around its ability to create jobs. Today, around 3.7 lac people in the US are employed in solar energy sector, while coal, gas and oil power generation combined employ only 1.8 lac people. Therefore, EVs can bring the required economic impetus to the state.

Fostering of Innovation

It was not so long ago that transportation was considered a family business, but this changed with the dramatic rise on ride-sharing companies, such as Uber and Ola. Today, a lot of innovation is taking place in the transportation sector. Globally, a lot of buzz and money is around the autonomous vehicle. Leading technology companies, such as Google, Apple etc are now competing with established automobile manufactures to ride the next big wave of autonomous mobility.

In fact, a couple of months back Soft Bank invested 1,600 crores in General Motor’s self-driving car unit — Cruise. While, autonomous vehicles are still far away from the Indian roads, but the question is can India become a serious player in this space? For autonomous vehicles to happen, they inherently need to be electric because even though the cost of automation is very high, it will be much higher for diesel or petrol vehicles. Therefore, a push for electric vehicles, coupled with policy for fostering innovation, can push the state towards an altogether new field.

Electric vehicles alone will not solve our mobility problems, because vehicles stuck in traffic, be it electric or petrol, have limited use. However, it will surely have an improvement on the air quality which will have a positive impact on encouraging people to walk and cycle.

Therefore, while Haryana needs to push for walking, cycling and public transport in cities, it also needs to shift from motorised vehicles to electric. Buses and shared vehicles are the initial catalyst drivers for this change, followed by two-wheelers.

(Amit Bhatt is director, integrated transport at WRI)