The Long Road Ahead

The government has decided to stop the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. But is the country ready?

- Katherine Sullivan

For a country that finds multiple mentions on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) list of the world’s most polluted cities, it’s hard to imagine a future free of sputtering diesel engines and noxious fumes.

While Delhi managed to shed its 2014 tag of being the most polluted city in the world, it is still grappling with vehicular emissions leading to unprecedented levels of pollution. The city’s periodic policy of keeping odd and even numbered vehicles off the road on alternate days threw open a debate, and most experts concur that it may not be a viable alternative in the long run.

In such a backdrop, then power minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement in April, that the country would stop selling petrol and diesel cars by 2030, sounds momentous. The move is particularly promising for the electric vehicle (EV) sector that is estimated to be worth $731 billion globally by 2027, according to a report from research firm IDTechEx. But does India have the infrastructure or the demand to meet the target?

According to Alok Ray of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), India is yet to warm up to EVs: Only 25,000 were sold in India in 2016 (of which just 2,000 were four-wheelers) compared with the 159,000 sold in the US in the same year. Besides, the Mahindra Group is the only manufacturer of EVs in India. The group acquired Reva Electric Car Company from founder and green entrepreneur Chetan Maini in 2010 and the company’s EV division, Mahindra Electric Mobility, now offers three all-electric, emission-free vehicles— the e2o, the eVerito, and the eSupro.

But despite the slow growth of the sector over the past decade, the government’s goals have re-energized EV enthusiasts. “What’s been happening in the past six to twelve months is a movement I haven’t seen before,” says Maini who stepped down as CEO of Mahindra Reva in 2015.