2022: Year of EVs? #pebbleinwaterswrites #environmenttalk #causeachatter @blogchatter

If you have read today's news about India and EVs (Electric Vehicles), Delhi is emerging as the largest buyer of EVs among other states. There could be multiple reasons for that. One, people are getting aware of serious repercussions of severe pollution conditions in Delhi. Two, people are getting health conscious. Three, the running cost gets drastically low for the EV owner. Four, breakdowns go low. There could be many more. Now, the question is, as the number of EV owners go high, it automatically demands a good level of comfort of owning it. Comfort, in terms of having ample charging stations, owning standby batteries at low cost, availability of vehicles without delays and long waiting, support when needed to be there in nearby proximity, subsidy from government for buying a new EV, and so on. And, I think, things are improving at a faster pace.

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It is, thus, quite evident that an EV revolution is evolving and at a faster speed. More and more automobile manufacturers are coming with fresher EV launched and there are more in the pipeline in the coming year, i.e., 2022. Mind it, these launches will be there with a number of deals and offers to attract buyers in an effort to make them go green. There was a video released in 2008 that showed Tesla's Elon Musk, who was talking about affordable electric vehicles. That video is getting quite popular these days. That was a period when Tesla was not in a comfortable position in the market and on top of that the EVs were being thought as irrelevant. Right now, Tesla is the market leader in EVs, having a huge target of delivering around 1.5 million vehicles in 2022. That is seriously incredible.

EV has become number one choice across the globe while buying a vehicle. This is going to exceed exorbitantly in 2022. In India, most of the automobile manufacturers like Suzuki, Maruti, Tata Motors, Hyundai, Honda, and Mahindra & Mahindra are aggressively focussing on the production of EVs. Tata Motors, for instance, is launching Altroz EV in 2022. It, already has, brands like Tigor and Nexon in EV segment. Each of these automobile giant is expanding space, capacity, and infrastructure to cater to EV market rise in 2022. As a matter of fact, Tata Chemicals is working towards acquiring UK-based battery company Johnson Matthey in order to develop an in-house battery for their EVs. By 2025, Tata Motors is targeting to launch 10 EVs. Buyers also are worried about rising fuel prices and are shifting to EVs as a better choice in all aspects.

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This is one of the prime reason of EVs sales going up consistently. In fact, in November this year, Tata Motors sales of EVs went up four times. Like, it had sold just around 400 EVs a year ago, taking Tigor EV and Nexon EV together. The same set of brands together touched sales of 1800 EVs. Tata Punch EV is also in the pipeline to be launched in 2022 in the sub-compact SUV category. On the other hand, Hyundai is relaunching Kona EV in 2022. Ioniq 5, its sedan EV, is also scheduled to be launched in mid-2022. This will be a bit higher on the price bar as initially it will be totally imported. Mahindra is also planning to launch 16 EVs by 2027 and thus is going for big investments in this regard. Interestingly, Nissan and Tesla, both, have released their individual plans to enter India.

In the two-wheeler EV segment, Hero MotoCorp is launching their first battery operated scooter in March 2022. If we look at startups in automobile vertical, Ola Electric has already launched its two electric scooters S1 and S1 Pro in August 2021. Many governments on the global front are planning to encourage automobile buyers to go green by offering them tax benefits. The US President Joe Biden has already started initiatives in this direction. In India, many state governments have already started setting their targets and policies to make a promising impact on the environmental needs. These targets, in turn, will push automobile companies to go aggressive in production of EVs. Definitely, there will be incentives for producers and buyers of EVs. This will work as a catalyst to boost the demand and sales of EVs across the country.  In metros, that thrust is already visible in a significant manner.

As I stated right in the beginning, there has to be a comfort level for a buyer intending to buy an Electric Vehicle. EV startup Ather Energy is going to set up more than 500 fast-charging stations by March 2022. This is creating a new set of tie-ups of such companies with malls, gyms, retail stores, etc. These locations will be a part of the charging network. Ideally, a two-wheeler will be charged within 30 minutes. Hero Electric has a plan to set up more than one lakh EV charging stations across the country. For the same, it has partnered with EV charging startup Charzer. In 2022, more than 10,000 charging stations will be operative across 30 cities by Hero Electric. Look at the newer avenues and opportunities that have emerged all of a sudden.

A number of mobile apps will be in place soon to locate nearest charging stations that is very much required by EV owners. Central government has already pumped around 300 crore worth of incentives in various shapes to fasten the production of  almost 100,000 EVs in the country. In any case, even if the cost of batteries goes a bit higher, as is expected, it will still be a better option in comparison to petrol and diesel in every aspect.

This post is part of #CauseAChatter with Blogchatter.