Automotive Industry

"...Interestingly, the first electric vehicles were produced and sold at the beginning of the 1900's and sales peaked in the early 1910's. Bur technological developments and the discovery of large oil reserves displaced the electric vehicle in favor of the combustion engine. Now, almost 100 years later, electric vehicles are coming back and need to increasingly displace the combustion engine in favor of reducing emissions and air pollution..."

The automotive industry has witnessed drastic transformations since its advent. From cattle-driven wooden carts to autonomous driving, efforts have been made to make mobility approachable and accessible by all. The sector has increasingly invested in realizing its mobility objectives that it has overlooked its mounting repercussions on global ecological system. Hence, in the past few decades the world attention has risen immensely to capitalize on cleaner and greener mobility solutions.

E-vehicles are the future of mobility. It is economically and ecologically more viable than the traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as firstly, they have zero tailpipe emissions and secondly, they do not require conventional fuels. Thus, it helps to realize energy security and creates plethora of opportunities for workforce.

Several countries have spearheaded the transition to e-mobility with fiscal incentives and regulatory measures to not just meet their Electric vehicle deployment targets but to meet the higher goal of reducing carbon footprint. Many have even entered into the process of sourcing power from renewable resources like the Netherlands' Smart Charging Networks (uses solar energy in vehicle-to-grid grid technology) and several have even began exploiting alternative fuels (ethanol, hydrogen, di-methyl ether and bio diesel) to fuel green mobility.

Amidst the rapidly growing global scenario towards zero-emission vehicles, when countries are investing extensively as well as exhaustively to make the new mobility products and services market ready, the growing concern for India rests on the rate of adoption and adaption of the new technology. With the second phase of FAME, GST deduction, Mobility missions and various state's EV policies, the Central and State government have followed a needs based approach to make the transition smooth and adaptable by the auto-manufacturers as well as end consumers. Automakers and vehicles aggregators are investing heavily in newer technologies to make the vision of shared, connected and electric vehicles a reality.

However, there are presently 5 pressing concerns with respects to the transition to electric mobility that India must address:

• First, creating a robust EV charging network, including privately owned and shared, to reduce range anxiety among users:
• Second, indigenous manufacture of EV batteries to attain self-sufficiency and reduce imports on battery components.
• Third, up-skilling automobile workforce to capitalize on the country's human capital strength.
• Fourth, achieving last mile connectivity for goods as well as persons draws attention towards two and three wheelers segments.
• Fifth, exploitation of alternative fuels to electricity in transport sector.

For India, the concern to shift to eco-friendly technology in automotive industry remains that of self-sufficiency in fuel production, use of renewable energy sources in the production of these alternative fuels, removal of supply chain bottlenecks and the need of suitable yet sustainable infrastructure to go green in mobility.