V K Saraswat, member of NITI Aayog said that hybrid vehicles are key for the growth of future mobility in India and it will take time for battery technology to be popular
Electric Vehicles are going to dominate the automobile industry in the future as governments around the world want to control pollution. India is also moving in the same path as the government is working on new initiatives like new FAME scheme to make electric mobility popular among common people.
Even though electric vehicles are cheaper to run and they offer excellent performance the problem is with charging infrastructure. It is the reason why even in developed countries like the US, combustion powered vehicles outsell EVs. But these countries have already adopted to hybrid vehicles and governments are giving subsidy.
But in India, it is completely different as the government wants to jump from IC engines to EVs directly, which is very tough. V K Saraswat, member of NITI Aayog said that hybrid vehicles are key for the growth of future mobility in India and it will take time for battery technology to be popular because it needs supporting infrastructure capacity.
IC engines dominate our market and first, we need to bring it down rather than going on to EVs and hybrid engines are the best solution as it integrates both IC and battery technology, which brings down pollution considerably. Saraswat also pointed out that hybrid technology doesn’t require any change in current infrastructure.
He added that battery technology must be introduced in two and three wheelers first as most of these vehicles running will be below 100 km, which will be ideal as most of the modern EVs in India comfortably give 100-150 km range on a single charge. Then the next step will be CVs and PVs.
Sawasat said that he is not expecting battery price to come down as materials used to make these battery are precious and won’t be readily available in immediate future, which will increase the price. Also, most of the electricity for India comes from coal and it is not good for nature.