You are currently viewing Indian EV Manufacturers Are Five Years Behind, Warns G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

Indian EV Manufacturers Are Five Years Behind, Warns G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

Speaking at the Green Bharat Summit, Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, said India’s EV industry is five years behind, and major players such as Tata and Mahindra have been told to speed up their exports and take advantage of policies in other countries that are changing. Kant said that while China has led with over 50% EV adoption, Europe has 23%, and the US is at 10%, while India is still at 2%, which is a critical delay in embracing the EV revolution. 

Kant said India would have been well-placed to become a leading exporter of EVs, especially given the fact that countries such as the US are imposing tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. “India should be a beneficiary of the tariff imposition on China,” Kant said, adding that the friendly relations between India and the US could have been harnessed earlier to support increased EV production. He said this was not just a chance for exports but a chance for survival as well, since the global automotive market would increasingly shift towards electric mobility. 

He has also called upon the legacy automobile makers of India, including Tata, Mahindra and Maruti, to enhance their EV production scale, citing that their slow transformation can potentially lead to capacity constraints in the near future and adversely impact growth prospects. G20 Sherpa also spoke of making EVs locally, he commended the startups that were taking the lead in the electric vehicle industry, including those that manufactured chargers in India. 

To meet global demands and ensure the sustainability of the sector, Kant suggested India should double its target for electric mobility, aiming for 60% of new vehicle sales to be electric by 2030, and 100% by 2035. He also expressed frustration with the slow uptake of government schemes like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for ACC batteries, highlighting India’s failure to keep pace with global battery storage goals. 

He further recommended radical changes in public mobility, including making two- and three-wheelers 100% electric and encouraging large-scale purchases of electric buses, as was done with LED bulbs. He also suggested that carbon trading be enabled so that Indian manufacturers, such as Mahindra and Tata, could benefit like global leaders, such as Tesla. 

On the consumer side, Kant saw an increasing trend towards EVs, which he stated would make a fossil fuel-based automobile undesirable within two to three years. He also underlined the need for interoperability in charging infrastructure. For instance, as the different intellectual property models employed by Tesla are shared, there is hope of achieving faster charging solutions.