Industry experts divided over government's electric vehicle push

Talking to Shereen Bhan of CNBC-TV18, co-founder of Blu Smart Mobility Punit Goyal and Director -- Corporate Affairs of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicle (SMEV) Manu Sharma have shared their opinions on the issue .

According to Sharma,  the "bold move" by the government would yield positive results considering that the world’s 13 most polluted cities are in India right now.

“One of the major success stories here is the e-rickshaws. They are giving last-mile connectivity to metro travellers. The two-wheelers are already in the race. There has been some delay in long-term plan for electric mobility. The government's proposed move is a  step in the right direction,” he noted.

“As far as the industry readiness is concerned, there are companies that have been into electric mobility for the past 10 years. The high cost of battery is a problem. The battery is being imported as nobody is manufacturing it in India. One of the major components of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles (FAME 1) scheme was to support the supply side for making batteries. Somehow that did not trigger off as it should have. As soon as the battery cost comes down, every electric vehicle actually is very cost effective,” Sharma added.

But Goyal says the right time for India to go all electric will be 2047. "We will be celebrating 100th Independence Day, and it will be the right time to say we are all electric. The automobile companies have made thousands of crores of investment and it won’t be easy for them to go all electric now. The cost of batteries is very high right now. The battery cost is going to go down over the next 10 years’ time,” he opined.

“Nobody is manufacturing batteries in India today, we are importing lithium, we don’t have the reserves in India and we don’t have the technology to manufacture electric cars. Currently, we only have  Mahindra and Tata manufacturing electric cars,” Goyal observed.