Cost of electric vehicles should be brought down: Energy Alternatives India co-founder Narasimhan Santhanam

In the first phase of India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution, scooters, autorickshaws (three-wheeler) and intra-city buses must be made electric, Narasimhan Santhanam, cofounder and director of Ener

CHENNAI : In the first phase of India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution, scooters, autorickshaws (three-wheeler) and intra-city buses must be made electric, Narasimhan Santhanam, cofounder and director of Energy Alternatives India (EAI), said on Friday. Speaking at the Electric Vehicle (EV) Summit 2018, he said India’s electric vehicle market size was much smaller than the global market. The three main challenges should be overcome to make the market more robust. They were the cost of electric vehicles should be brought down to equal fuel-vehicle prices, mileage should be increased and charging time of vehicles should be reduced.

The cost of production should be brought down. Electric scooters also travel only about half the distance on full charge against a full tank of petrol and it takes a few hours to charge when it takes only a few minutes to refuel, he said stating that the mid-term innovation goals should be to overcome these challenges. Further, the speed of electric vehicles should be optimised to that of other vehicles. 

He, however, argued that this is not a burning issue at this time as in the first phase of electric vehicle revolution, India must replace scooters, three wheelers and buses, which are in use within the city for low-speed travels.Bringing in affordable three-wheelers would empower women to enter the logistics industry, said Hemalatha Annamalai, CEO, Ampere Vehicles.

Hemalatha, who is also a member of the National Council for Electric Mobility, said, “the subsidy and continuation of FAME India Scheme is extremely important for sustaining the ecosystem, to convert at least a third of automobile fleet into EVs by 2030.”Mecca Rafeeque Ahmed – president of SICCI and Chairman of Farida Group, said an EV revolution would lead to reduction of CO2 emission, lesser dependence on oil imports and a more efficient urban transport system.

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