NEW DELHI: India's dream to have only electric cars by 2030 has been charged at Nagpur. It became the first city in India to have an electric-vehicle charging station by an oil marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation. IOC has become India's first oil marketing company to set up a charging station at its petrol pump.
Nagpur, also the first city to introduce electric public transportation in India, happens to be the constituency of Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari, the man who is convinced he must do everything to meet the 2030 electric vehicle (EV) target. In September, he warned automakers that he could even use coercion. "We should move towards alternative fuel... I am going to do this, whether you like it or not. And I am not going to ask you. I will bulldoze it," Gadkari said.
While everyone should laud his spirit since government must strengthen policy to meet the target, what has happened in his constituency is much more needed than policy bulldozers—the infrastructure. The lack of charging infrastructure is the biggest challenge for India.
India has nearly 56,000 fuel stations. Compare them with the number of community charging stations across the country—206. For an-all-electric-car target, India needs to ramp up infrastructure in a big way. Since the operating range of electric vehicles is low, India would need a humongous charging infrastructure. Creation of so much infrastructure also needs a clear-cut policy as technology is evolving and might keep changing.
The Indian automobile market is tipped to become the third largest in the world by 2020, according to estimates by JD Power and Ernst & Young. India's share of the global passenger vehicle market will jump from 4% in 2010-11 to 8% in 2020. Global passenger vehicle demand is expected to hit 108 million units of which 50% or around 54 million units will come from the Asia, Pacific and Africa region. India's passenger vehicle market is expected to hit 10 million units by 2020. That's the scale for India to just start working on for the 2030 target. Such a huge number of vehicles would obviously require a vast charging infrastructure.
Nagpur may have made a small beginning with a charging station at a petrol pump, but it is a significant start. If other oil companies and cities emulate Nagpur, India can hope to realise its dream of having only electric cars