In April 2018, we published the white paper titled “Electric Vehicles in India – Prospects and Challenges” in conjunction with IMC Chamber of Commerce. In the past 2 years, much water has flown under the bridge – the auto industry as a whole is in the throes of recession, a new FAME 2 policy has been rolled out, several OEMs have rolled out their EV offerings in the market and EV ride share start-ups have mushroomed across the country.
Globally too, the march of EVs goes on undaunted. Range anxiety has reduced, newer and better models continue to be launched across geographies and the EV park keeps on growing. Tesla has turbo-charged its way through a slew of new models, touched profitability, entered China and achieved a market capitalisation unseen in the auto industry. China continues to be the global leader in EV adoption, although EV sales have take a hit with the removal of subsidies in July 2019. Reportedly the next push in China would be towards battery swapping, with standards, protocols and business models as the key focus areas. New technology continues to percolate, with Wireless Charging (Fortrum, Oslo), Solar Charging (Lightyear, Netherlands) and Super-Speed Charging (450 KW prototype of Porsche BMW) being the interesting ones.
