The Silent Electric revolution in India

Intermediate Public transport in India - usage statistics and the environment

Public transportation is critical to India's developing economy and a significant portion of its 1.38 billion population use it on a daily basis. Population growth in its cities over the past 50 years led to overcrowding in mass transit systems (buses and trains) and many commuters opted for smaller vehicles to navigate the urban sprawl. Classed as ‘Intermediate Public transport (IPT)’, these small vehicles are flexible to passenger needs and a viable alternative to owning a private car/bike. The most popular of these IPT vehicles is the three-wheeled 'Auto rickshaw' or 'tuk-tuk'. An average auto-rickshaw travels roughly 100 km/day (62 miles) in Indian cities, takes on about 45 passengers per day an average ride length of 5.5km (3.4 miles) per passenger (reference: https://www.researchgate.net). Their traditional black and yellow livery is a common sight in Indian towns and cities:

Image credit: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org

Whilst these three-wheelers have made it convenient and affordable to get from A to B, what went unnoticed is their impact on the environment. In 2016, there were 7,475,147 auto-rickshaws on the road across India with 800,000 more expected to have been sold each year after (reference: https://www.researchgate.net). A large portion of them are powered by fossil fuels such as Petrol, Diesel, Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and Compressed natural gas (CNG) which makes auto-rickshaws account for over 10% of India’s total CO2 emissions. In addition, there were an estimated 882,363 tonnes of Carbon Monoxide (CO) emissions and 1,074,834 tonnes of Hydrocarbons and Nitrogen Oxide (HC+NOx) emissions. Unchecked, these fossil fuel emissions are expected to more than double by 2030 and combined with pollution from other automobiles on India’s roads, the impact on the environment would be catastrophic. However, in recent years the national government has taken notice of these alarming numbers and are taking steps to reduce fossil fuel dependency.

Tackling emissions - government and private sector initiatives

The number of Diesel-powered auto-rickshaws has reduced in the past decade due to alternate fuel subsidies and emission norms; some cities like Patna have also started placing bans on Diesel vehicles and encouraging e-rickshaw adoption with financial assistance from the national government. A 2018 Bloomberg ‘New Energy Finance’ report also showed that electric three-wheelers are cheaper to run than their petrol-fuelled relatives:

Image Credit: Bloomberg New Energy Finance https://www.bloomberg.com

One such electric vehicle ownership scheme is the ‘FAME India Scheme Phase 2’, which launched in 2019 as part of India’s National Mission on Electric Mobility: https://fame2.heavyindustries.gov.in/

Phase 1 of FAME led to 280,000 new hybrid and electric vehicles on the road over a 4-year period, and phase 2 received much higher investment (₹10,000 crore or 1.3 billion US Dollars) in both electric technology awareness and demand incentives. This scheme provides special discounts on three-wheeler purchases, road tax exemption, income tax benefits, interest-free loans and scrapping incentives on older Petrol and Diesel vehicles. Tenders have been released to ramp up electric vehicle charging infrastructure with guidelines for a charge station to be available every 25km (15 miles) along urban roads and highways. State and local governments are participating in this national scheme by boosting incentives and setting 5-year targets for electric vehicle registrations: https://e-amrit.niti.gov.in/state-level-policies

Research indicates that with just a 5% shift to electric auto-rickshaws in India by 2030, emissions will decrease by 6.30% compared to the baseline scenario (no modal shift). Reference: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353278036a.

Image Credit: By Ramesh NG from Bangalore, INDIA - Electric Buses in Bangalore by BmTc, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

Image credit: Mahindra Treo Auto-rickshaw https://electricvehicles.in

In 2021, the ‘Go Electric campaign’ was launched by the central government in New Delhi to spread awareness on the benefits of e-mobility, charging and electric cooking: https://pib.gov.in/. The information campaign is targeted at a grassroots level to build confidence in electric transportation and energy-efficient appliances that are built in India. While a significant modal shift is targeted by 2030 and the electrical infrastructure (power plants, chargers, supply grid, etc.) is being improved, the government is asking consumers to move toward cleaner fuels like Biomass and CNG which are indigenous.

Image Credit: PSU Connect https://www.psuconnect.in/)

Several Indian automobile companies have also joined the ‘Make in India’ scheme to become one of the world’s largest producers of Electric vehicles with a focus on fulfilling the nation’s demands first: https://www.makeinindia.com

Start-ups in India’s mega cities have started to offer ‘Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’ allowing consumers to easily plan and book electric auto-rickshaw journeys using a smartphone app. Apart from commuter transportation, these start-ups have also partnered with e-commerce companies to deliver parcels and online grocery orders.

Image credit: SmartE to have 10,000 electric three-wheelers in its fleet by 2022: 100+ metro stops planned https://www.financialexpress.com

In February 2022, the central government introduced a new ‘battery swapping’ policy to boost sales of electric vehicles and meet the country’s decarbonisation goals by 2030 (reference: https://www.reuters.com/). Swapping batteries allows EV drivers to resume their journey quickly in the absence of fast charging stations and reduces their range anxiety. International business partnerships have been signed to build swapping stations and ramp up battery production across India.

All the EV adoption initiatives mentioned above have allowed drivers to afford new, eco-friendly auto-rickshaws with lower running costs, increase their income and reduce private vehicle use.