India is Power Surplus, E-Mobility Solutions in Interest of the Country: Gadkari

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari believes India is power surplus so the benefits of e-mobility solutions are very much in the interest of the country.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Minister of Shipping, and the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari believes India is power surplus so the benefits of e-mobility solutions are very much in the interest of the country. Speaking at the India e-mobility Conclave 2020 (IMC 2020) organised by the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). The minister said that there is a strong need to develop import-substituting, cost-effective, indigenous, and pollution-free sustainable transportation systems in the country, and one of the most important solution is public transport on electricity.

The India e-Mobility Conclave 2020 (IMC 2020) conference provided a unique platform to interact, network and learn about market landscape, government policies, new products, EV and charging infrastructure deployments including fast charging and swapping technologies.

In his keynote address the minister went on to say that “presently we are electric surplus, and we are planning to make generation through solar energy, we have tremendous potential through hydropower, wind power also has substantial potential, so power is not a problem. Presently, power is an alternative which is very cheap. We are also making this hydrogen fuel cell technology in this country and now the idea is to make hydrogen fuel cell from biomass. These are the different types of technology available and we must move to those which are indigenous, and we do not need imports.”

He further added “Government approach is to give support to all new technologies but Make In India is equally important. Our priority is particularly for Li-ion batteries. We have already given two mines of Li-ion to private people and expecting outcome soon. For diesel buses, the cost of fuel is Rs 150/km but for e- buses it comes to Rs 50/km, so the capital cost is high, but fuel cost is low. For manufacturers, ‘Make in India’ and ‘Made in India’ is equally important, if you are importing materials from China and other countries and assembling that is not of use. We need to find an indigenous solution and that is very important.”

Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, President, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said, “It’s great to see how fast the e-Mobility ecosystem is evolving in India. Since the last e-Mobility conclave, we have already seen the introduction of new EV models which have generated a lot of interest from consumers. The commercial fleets are rapidly adopting e-Mobility across 2W 3W & 4W segments.

“We need to focus on the right deployment of charging infrastructure to make it easy for users to switch to electric vehicles. With the upcoming advanced chemistry cell battery manufacturing mission of 50 GWh, we are confident that India can develop a robust ecosystem for R&D and manufacturing of advanced battery & EV technologies. IESA with its partnership with Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) is looking to play a role in accelerating faster adoption of EVs through the launch of EV Adopter Club.”

An MoU was signed between EESL and India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) to collaborate jointly to ensure faster adoption of EV mobility & pan India scaling of EV charging infrastructure. The initial focus of their work will be on the development and deployment of the pilot EV tracker tool including associated hardware, and an analysis of the potential for Telecom towers to double up as EV charging stations along the Golden Quadrilateral of India.

Anil Shrivastava – Mission Director, National Mission for Transformative Mobility & Battery Storage in NITI Aayog said “battery and EV will disrupt Indian scenario. E-mobility will be impacted by the pandemic and the demand for e-2W, including petrol and diesel 2Ws has picked up because people have realised that this is going to be the new normal and in that perspective, the demand is going up. India E-mobility Gadkari

“We have taken steps to improve EV demand, the Ministry of Power and Department of Heavy Industries is working on how to push e-2W and exploring a model that will separate cost of the vehicle from the source of its energy i.e. battery. If we separate electric vehicles from the battery, the upfront cost will be less and we are encouraging model where the battery can be separated be it leasing, swapping so on — so we are exploring these options.”

He added “Some other positive steps the government has taken is Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have finalised scrapping policy, testing centres should be there and standardisation, location for e-chargers have been identified. We are very close to a tipping point in EV adoption.”