Recently, the Indian government planned to ask the top cab companies like Uber and Ola to convert 40% of their fuel based cars into electric based cars by April 2026 after a meeting where clean mobility was discussed.
NITI Aayog, the think tank, having PM Narendra Modi as its chairperson is working on policies that can bring clean mobility to India as the country wants to cut down on its oil import.
What is our aim?
This step has been taken keeping in mind the government aims to complete transition towards electric fleet by 2030 and the agreement made in COP 21 (Paris agreement).
Along with the cab services, the motorcycles and scooters used for delivery purposes and other commercial purposes will also need to be electric by April 2023.
Given that India has seen the fast growth of food delivery apps like Zomato and Swiggy and e-commerce firms like Amazon.com and Walmart owned Flipkart, adding to the number of vehicles on roads, this decision makes sense.
Also read: Is India Ready For Climate Change?
Where are we?
There are many electric scooter manufacturers in India like Ather Energy, Hero Electric and Okinawa but there are only two makers of cars that sell electric cars.
Sales of electric vehicles in India has grown to 56,000 units in 2018 while China has seen the increase in sales of EV by over 5,00,000 units.
When to start?
Both the cab service companies, Uber and Ola, need to start by next year itself, if they want to complete their goals.
If they start next year, they can achieve 2.5% electrification by 2021, 5% by 2022, 10% by 2023 before taking it up to 40%.
What is needed?
Ola had earlier launched its pilot project in the city of Nagpur in 2017 for operating electric cars in India. However, the project was not successful as the drivers were unhappy to wait for long hours at the charging stations and wanted to return to fuel based cars.
Based on this example, the government needs to provide proper infrastructure for the smooth functioning of the EVs. Incentives by the government can help the drivers to overcome the high cost of these vehicles.
The Swachh Bharat Mission had great advertisement but it could have had great impacts if there was proper scientific research, method and implementation. We hope that this plan of the government will receive proper implementation other than advertisement, which is also crucial.
Sources: Auto car India, Auto NDTV, Business Today, Inc42
Image credits: Google Images
Find the blogger at: @darshna_kumar
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