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Will electric car reign in Indian roads?
By Binu Paul, SiliconIndia
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Saturday, 05 February 2011, 14:24 IST
Bangalore: Although still in the nascent stage, the electric car market sees a boom in the coming years as the car makers have realized that in an era of alternate fuels, this will most likely influence the future in a big way. The concept of electric vehicles has proven to be a strong business model with great commercial potential that applies smart technology. A Freedonia Group research estimated that global sales of alternative fuel vehicles would be over 1.6 million units and $39 billion by 2009, which has further gone up by now.
Going by the experts' estimates, India will see a five-fold growth in population in the urban areas that will further worsen the problem of air and noise pollutions - a condition that can only be addressed by the electric vehicles that are free of pollution with low running and maintenance costs and easy to handle. The demand now is very small. The estimates suggest that less than five per cent of the passenger car market in India would comprise electric cars over the next five-seven years.
But as stated above, there is going to be a revolution in the electric car market in a few years time as globally the demand for electronic cars is increasing day-by-day and this trend will take over India very soon. It should be noted that Suzuki Motor Corporation has an electric van called Every+ and a plug-in hybrid version of Swift, there is i10 Electric from Hyundai and Indica electric from Tata Motors who also plans on Indica Vista electric. The Chevrolet Volt from General motors and the Fluence, Kangoo, Twizy, and Zoe being jointly developed by Renault and Nissan are some of the most expected electronic cars. While the electric version of the Tata Nano, Chevrolet E-Spark, Reva NXR and NXG have already hit the Indian market, many biggies like Renault, Ford Motors, and Nissan are coming to India with their electronic cars very soon.
The automonitor estimates that if we can have three lakh Electric Vehicles on the roads by 2020, including three-wheelers, cars, and scooters, this could result in a reduction of over 16 lakh metric tons of CO, NOx & HC by 2020, savings of over 
3700 crores in foreign exchange and significant health costs savings. But he opined that it won't be before 5 to 10 years that the viability of commercial use of electric buses, three wheelers and scooters can be made practical.
The underpowered performance, heavy weight of batteries, poor driving range per charge of the batteries, less availability of spare parts and qualified mechanics and high prices are some of the main reasons why the electronic cars failed to make a definite market in India.
The market potential for electric cars in India is very high owing to many factors such as a very well established auto component infrastructure, mechanical hardware availability, low manufacturing costs, low research and development costs, presence of a large domestic market and high urban population. The government should promote the concept of electronic vehicles in India through proper awareness campaigns and should reduce the high custom duty which stops the foreign electronic cars at the border. The Indian technology schools should also take adequate initiatives to create innovative technologies for further developing the concept.
3700 crores in foreign exchange and significant health costs savings. But he opined that it won't be before 5 to 10 years that the viability of commercial use of electric buses, three wheelers and scooters can be made practical.
The underpowered performance, heavy weight of batteries, poor driving range per charge of the batteries, less availability of spare parts and qualified mechanics and high prices are some of the main reasons why the electronic cars failed to make a definite market in India.
The market potential for electric cars in India is very high owing to many factors such as a very well established auto component infrastructure, mechanical hardware availability, low manufacturing costs, low research and development costs, presence of a large domestic market and high urban population. The government should promote the concept of electronic vehicles in India through proper awareness campaigns and should reduce the high custom duty which stops the foreign electronic cars at the border. The Indian technology schools should also take adequate initiatives to create innovative technologies for further developing the concept.
