In the United States, luxury car buyers spend $60,000 or more on Teslas and other electric vehicles, and $25,000 or more for less expensive models.
Here in India they are all out of reach for the majority of families with a median income of just $2,400. Still, the movement of electric vehicles is not on four wheels, but on two or three wheels.
Electric mopeds and three-wheeled rickshaw taxis, priced at as little as $1,000, are zipping through India’s crowded urban thoroughfares. We also provide a template on how to tackle climate change without expensive electric cars.
Consider Kuldeep Singh. Twice in his day he swaps the depleted lithium-ion batteries in his sky blue Piaggio electric rickshaw for fully charged ones at swapping stations around New Delhi.
“The best part is that there is no contamination,” Singh says. Buying a new battery costs about half the cost of filling up a traditional rickshaw tank. “I am proud and proud to see India grow stronger.”
Indian car maker sells 430,000 electric vehicles In the 12 months to March, it more than tripled from the previous year. According to industry data, most are two-wheelers and three-wheelers, with only 18,000 passenger cars. The American will buy about 487,000 new electric vehicles in 2021, up 90% from 2020, according to the Kelley Blue Book.
About 15 years ago, tinkers and small businesses in India started building cheap cars by importing electric motors and lead-acid batteries from China. Few regulations led to the proliferation of vehicles, safety and other issues. But they’ve also created space for start-ups and established automakers to try and build something sturdier.
The Indian government and the automotive industry are now betting heavily on affordable electric vehicles. Competition and subsidies have made electric mopeds and rickshaws the same or cheaper than internal combustion models.For hundreds of dollars, some startups Modification of combustion engine vehicles to battery power. At the same time, the recent surge in oil and natural gas prices has significantly increased the operating costs of internal combustion engine vehicles.
“There are a lot of places in the world where you don’t buy a $60,000 car,” said 37-year-old Babish Agarwal, founder and chairman of Ola Electric, which makes electric mopeds at its factory in southern Tamil Nadu. Told.
“Technologies that work in hotter, dustier climates and more potty roads are very different,” he added. “India is like a great microcosm of the world. If we can build it, it will be very relevant.”
Starting with a small car makes economic and environmental sense for India. Most of the domestic transportation fuel is used on two and three wheelers, and car ownership is very low. India has only 22 per 1,000 people, while the US has 980 per 1,000.
“If we can electrify two-wheelers and three-wheelers, it will make all the difference,” said Amitabh Kant, former chief executive of Niti Ayog, the government agency that created the electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler subsidy program. increase. 2015 wheeled car.
India’s experience can have global ripple effects. Billions of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America do not own a car.
India is already selling cheap internal combustion engine vehicles to other parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, and executives and government officials hope to eventually export electric vehicles in large numbers as well.
Read more about electric vehicles
One of the government’s biggest goals is to improve the harmful air pollution in many large cities, especially New Delhi.
Three-quarters of India’s electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, so battery-powered cars can’t do away with that pollution. Even electric models that derive their energy from coal-fired power plants typically have lower overall greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline models. India is also investing heavily in solar energy, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledging last year to get half of India’s energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
Fatima Arroyo Arroyo, an urban transport expert at the World Bank, said: “The transition to electric vehicles must go hand in hand with power generation.
Migration will obviously take time. The Indian automaker said he sold more than 16 million passenger cars, buses, mopeds, rickshaws and other vehicles in the 12 months to March, while electric cars accounted for just 2.6%. However, some parts of the market are changing rapidly. Over 45% of his tricycles were electric.
For rickshaw drivers like Mr. Singh, the main attraction is the savings on fuel costs.
“It gives our customers a living,” said Suman Mishra, CEO of Mahindra Electric, which makes rickshaws and other electric vehicles. “
Manufacturers say the biggest problem is keeping up with demand.
Ola built a factory in the middle of a sea of palm trees in Pochanpali, a small town near Bangalore. The factory employs about 2,000 people, all women. Very few Indian women work in manufacturing.
With the help of robots, the women test cells, assemble battery packs, and mopeds that start at around $1,200 and ship directly to customers.
Ola CEO Aggarwal said the switch to battery power is unlikely if the world relied solely on big automakers like Tesla and Ford Motor Company. Big manufacturers have raised prices by thousands of dollars and may never make affordable electric cars in India or Africa.
Of course, low-cost electric cars also exist in other countries.
China is the leader in small battery powered vehicles. A joint venture between General Motors, SAIC and Wuling sells a four-seat electric car he sells for $4,500. With a top speed of about 60 miles per hour and a range of 100 miles, the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV is well suited for urban areas.
India shows that there is a huge market for even cheaper cars.
However, it is not clear whether India can scale up production to transform its transportation system and provide affordable electricity to other developing countries. Raw materials for batteries are scarce worldwide, and Indian automakers have to compete with big players like Tesla and his GM.
In 2014, Mr. Modi started an initiative to spur manufacturing called “Make in India”. But the campaign’s results have been mixed, and optimism about India becoming the next China has faded. The Indian economy was in a slump even before the pandemic, Foreign direct investment and exports have stagnated in recent years.
India is also far below the job creation needed to employ many young people. GM and Ford recently left the country after struggling to sell cars.
“The ‘Make in India’ strategy was unsuccessful and highlighted India’s dependence on imports, especially from China,” said R. Nagaraj, visiting professor at the Center for Development Studies in Southern Kerala. “Slogans are very good at revitalizing a country, but they cannot be left alone.”
India’s approach to electric vehicles seems to reflect the lessons of these failures. Instead of providing small subsidies to dozens of industries as before, the government is funding several key areas to help Indian companies build the electric vehicle ecosystem. I am turning around.
Modi also appears to have abandoned efforts to get Tesla to build a factory in India. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company will only build factories in India if India lowers tariffs on imported cars. Therefore, it was able to establish a market for Tesla by first importing cars from Shanghai.
Analysts said Modi was wise to stop courting Tesla. The cheapest car is around $40,000, but here most cars sell for less than his $10,000.
Auto industry executives say the reason China is lagging behind in the adoption of electric vehicles is because batteries are too expensive. “The economy is not working,” said RC Bhargava, chairman of India’s largest automaker Maruti Suzuki.
For now, most Indian officials and executives agree that the main focus is on increasing the use of electric mopeds and rickshaws.
Electric car sales plummeted last spring after a series of motorbike fires that killed a man and his daughter. One involved a scooter made by Ola.
Aggarwal said imported batteries and cells were responsible for many of the fires. With government subsidies, Ola will soon manufacture his own battery that he vows will be safer.
India has a lot to do in other areas.there are about 930 public charging stationcompared to about 2.2 million in China, according to the government.
The Modi government is offering subsidies to companies to increase the number of chargers.
One company working on this initiative is Sun Mobility. The diminutive, which predates Tesla’s first model by many years, is headed by Chetan Maini, who built the Leva, a two-door electric car.
Sun Mobility has 70 battery swapping stations in New Delhi and Maini plans to expand to 500 across the country by the end of the year. The company aims to provide modular batteries that work in any vehicle. You will need 1 moped, 2 rickshaws, and 4 passenger cars.
“It’s not an Indian solution,” he said. “This is a global solution.”
Aggarwal said India, home to about one-fifth of humanity, must play a bigger role in moving the world away from fossil fuels. “Without India it wouldn’t be possible,” he said.
Hari Kumar Contributed to reporting from New Delhi.