The webinar was held by EQ Magazine on 14th April 2022. It was moderated by Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director, EODB, and Project Director, NHEV (Moderator). Mr. Abhijeet Sinha discussed gracefully the upcoming future of the Electric Vehicle Market in India in the following year 2022
In the following webinar, Mr. Abhijeet Sinha put forwarded many opportunities, drawbacks, and major challenges regarding the EV market outlook and encourages bringing on the suppositions of the panellists.
Mr. Anubhav Kapoor, Director of Legal Affairs – Ford – talk over the kind of outlook people give, when it comes to EV outlook, he has very delicately discussed the pros and cons of the EV market and also shared some past experiences when he was involved in a small project where they were occupied exploring the prototype of the electric concept car and they did invent a drivable prototype with all the hub motors, electronics, and state-of-the-art features, and most importantly it was user friendly, which made him realize that they were missing this whole part of technology. Also, as compared to mechanical environment, EVs could easily tweak around with more features, and also had clear advantages from manufacturing perspective such as reduced cost, use of composites and plastics due to low vibrations, low number of parts which also meant low maintenance.
But out of all the discussion, one thing that stood out was the battery, The battery accounts for almost 50% of the total cost of this prototype and also the cost of the electric vehicle. He further added that battery was the single most important factor which prevented them from commercializing at that point of time and it still continues. While the price of lithium-ion batteries used by most electric vehicles has dropped by 73% In the past six years, it is still costly to maintain an electric vehicle manufacturer’s long-term operation. Battery cost continues to be the biggest challenge even today.
In further discussion, Mr. Kapoor put forward people’s major concern, “Are EVs really green.” to which he explained, “though the source of electricity is still mostly fossil fuels and batteries aren’t as green right now, but that doesn’t mean they won’t get greener in the future”. Currently it is more important to manage the entire emissions that are created, so if you make the vehicles green and have central points that generate emissions, they can be easier to control.
Mr. VivekGosain, General Manager – MG MOTORS
Mr. VivekGosain tenders to people’s biggest concern about the battery management system and the discarding part of the battery of the electric vehicles.
He says, when we look at the current EV scenario in the country, people are focusing more on the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. And the percentage of electric vehicles is increasing in the coming years. But there isn’t enough noise around the electric vehicle battery handling unit.
He further added, “we have an electric vehicle in our portfolio and it is also a connected car, the ZS EV, and we have the controls related to battery performance, integrated into vehicle architecture and electronics. However, we only have a few years in the electric vehicle business. So, at the moment we can’t test and get results on battery performance over the years because then, even if you look at the number of cars on the road from MG’s point of view, it would be no more than about 20-50,000 cars compared to today.
So, for now, the data from the vehicle’s point of view is not enough for us either. While we are constantly monitoring our vehicles, their performance, their battery performance and trying to improvise and try to incorporate newer technology into new products and electric vehicles. “
However, in his opinion at this time they are not mature enough to predict or diagnose how battery performance will perform, as they would normally expect batteries to perform well at reasonable levels for at least six to seven years of battery life or vehicle life.
In further discussion, he introduced the major challenges that they are facing from MG’s perspective, and taking the matter further, he said that”We are attempting to discover sustenance beyond the active life of the battery, as once the battery life is over from the vehicle usages perspective, we have either the option of reconditioning and extending shelf hike of the battery for the electrical vehicle or we could seek to use the battery as an alternative to other, non-vehicle-related applications, but regarding something similar where battery power is required. We also try to focus on how to recycle battery components as much as possible so that the harmful impact on the environment can be minimized if not reversed. Currently, we are working on the battery’s charging timeline to reduce the charging time and also working on a newer technology of batteries like sodium-ion batteries for a better environment.”
Mr. Sanjay Bhatia-Business Consultant EV – speaking on the safety measures discussed the success of battery management in commercial vehicles and gave some insightful reasons behind the validation system. In favour of the unique climate condition of India, India planned to have liquid cooling batteries, which is why the development costs add up, and that’s maybe the main cause that there is no proper confirmation period for vehicles that have caught on fire and by then the thermal management becomes much more necessary.
Mr. Abhishek Dabas – COO – Electric Vehicle, Amplus Clean Mobility – Amplus Solar- expressed his views on India’s EV financing and EV infrastructure which has anticipated an investment of 50 billion USD (3.7 Lakh Crore INR) by 2030.He briefed about financing of the Amplus solar on solar assets. Pushing the topic further he said,” We install solar power plants on the roofs of our customers, whether it’s industrial, residential, commercial or just outdoor installations, and then we sell electricity, clean energy, as we like to tell our customers. Likewise, with the same group of customers, we have built partnerships and sought to deliver clean miles. But also, in funding numbers, we don’t mind having a lot of assets, which allows us to enable faster electric vehicle adoption. As the financial companies may charge slightly higher interest rates or high down payments than the fuel engine counterpart since aftermarket isn’t clear, so, the majority is not adopting EVs today, which came forward as a major issue, they are just watching and waiting for some positive effects.
Mr. Vinit Bansal, Founder & Managing Director – EV Motors India – discussed his working on fuel cells and some of the other technologies, where he was working on a program called PNGV partnership. He further extended his point and said that “India is still at a very nascent stage of electric vehicle adoption, even after 10 years in the place, there is still a lot of work to be done to build the entire ecosystem”. So, we are currently focusing on the two-wheeler, three-wheeler segment because that’s where we’re seeing the fastest adoption. And now that we’re starting to see financial institutions looking at funding two-wheelers and three-wheelers over the last five to seven years, what we’re seeing is a lot of the groundwork is being established but we are still 2 or 3 years away from that infection point. Also due to the pandemic, programs of many players in the market were delayed. So, for the steady growth, he suggested a collaborative effort between the vehicle manufacturer, charging infrastructure and the financial institutions.
Mr. Vinit Bansal,- Founder & Managing Director – of EV Motors India – continued the panel discussion by talking about the working of Mindra Green Energy where they are involved in manufacturing Ev charging. While highlighting charging infrastructure concern, he recommends charging stations at workplace and public gas stations, which may help market place.
