The growing awareness of the potential benefits of electric mobility (e-mobility) in India is driving the country’s apex industry bodies to bring about a new charge for the sector.

Earlier this month, on August 5, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) jointly organised the second national conference on Sustainable E-Mobility. The event saw experts throw light on the road ahead for e-mobility in India and also brainstorm on the roadblocks and share best practices. It stressed on the need to develop and grow an ecosphere of e-mobility in the country.

Recognising the imperatives of e-mobility and its future implications, Harish Lakshman, president, ACMA, said: “The auto component industry in India is yet to fully absorb the magnitude and impact of e-mobility on future of the automotive industry. Being oblivious to this change in the mobility world could be a big risk for the auto component industry.”

With a view to growing e-mobility in India, the government unveiled the National Mission on Electric Mobility (NMEM) in January 2013 and formed a National Board of Electric Mobility (NBEM) to create a fast track pathway for ushering in e-mobility. However, e-mobility adoption in India as compared to other developed economies remains a challenge. This is attributed to higher cost, lower driving range, lack of charging stations, inadequate infrastructure for manufacturing, limited skills-sets available for development, obscure regulatory policies and the sustainable recyclability of components. The agenda for the conference was to explore the opportunities present against the backdrop of the government’s efforts to enthuse suppliers to be future ready and to take e-mobility to the next level.

The challenge of meeting the country’s energy needs is bound to increase as the pace of development gathers momentum. “With unique usage and driving patterns in India, e-mobility solutions needs to be tailored for cost effectiveness. The NMEM plans to deploy 5 to 7 million vehicles by 2020 bringing in positive growth opportunity for Indian auto industry,” said Dr Rao Chalasani, chairman, Frontier Technology Group, SIAM.

Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries (MOHI), said: “My recommendations to OEMs and auto component manufacturers are to plug into the electric mobility scheme in real time, as we will be ready with the scheme soon. Let industry be prepared to launch newer solutions to help the urban and semi-urban rural population to adopt e-mobility willingly in a big way.”

He added, “Setting up Centres of Excellence (CoEs) will serve as a platform to bring a new capability. The government as part of its agenda plans to spend US$ 400 million (Rs 2,446 crore). The last 18 to 24 months have gone into interacting with stakeholders in India and overseas to put together a holistic plan for the Indian customer. This scheme is expected to be ready in a month’s time.”

Deepak Jain, chairman, STDC, ACMA, commented, “The next decade is going to witness a significant growth in adoption of EVs in India and as long as majority of component manufacturers believe and invest in this transformation, we should be in good shape to harness the opportunity.”