How To Put EVs On Fast Track

From setting up charging points to domestic manufacturing, electric vehicles need an infrastructure push for faster adoption

- HARICHANDAN ARAKALI

“Electric vehicles (EV) are deemed to be the sunrise sector of the automobile industry as they are solely responsible for the sector’s impending transformation into a renewable alternative over fossil-fuel-dependent vehicles,” says Akhil Aryan, founder of Ion Energy in Mumbai. “India has shown considerable progress in the EV space with serious players spearheading numerous initiatives to promote EV adoption.”

Ion Energy builds battery management technologies and an analytics platform that can assess an EV’s performance based on data being fed into it. By exploiting software analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Ion can improve performance and extend the life of lithium-ion batteries by up to 40 percent, the company claims. The analytics software makes sense of battery data to provide insights that can ensure zero downtime and reduce the overall ownership cost.

“Battery cell and motor manufacturing, and charging stations infrastructure are critical in the near-term. Knowledge capacity building is significant in the longer term,” says Rajat Verma, founder of Mumbai startup Lohum. The venture is advancing India’s EV ecosystem in three areas, Verma says: Lowest cost battery packs; creating battery raw materials feedstock through recycling to ensure geo-strategic independence; and domestic intellectual property and manufacturing for a seamless supply chain.