Towards E-Mobility Mission (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3:Economy
Prelims level: National E-Mobility Plan
Mains level: Infrastructure development in transport sector

Context:

• The Supreme Court has sought response from centralgovernment on a petition that was filed questioning theimplementation of National E-Mobility Plan. VEHICLE
  More Efficiency:
• Though batteries deliver 340 times lessenergy than gasoline, the battery-run vehicles have anefficiency of nearly 85% compared to 20% of gasoline-runengines. This means 85% energy can be used to run thewheels and only 15% is lost as heat. Whereas in a gasolineengine only 20% energy of gasoline makes it to the heels; theremaining 80% is lost as heat.

Crude Oil Imports:

• Nearly 80% of India’s oil requirementcomes from its crude oil imports. EVs reduce the need for oilimport.

Coal Sector Liberalisation:

• India has recently liberalized itscoal sector by privatizing mining and allowing FDI in Coalmining. Besides, recently India has ended its captive miningregime accelerating the commercial mining of coal in India.
  EVs can utilise this expansion in electricity production.

Safe and Clean Urban Mobility:

• In the backdrop of 1stGlobal Mobility Summit, the PM identified the two mostimportant challenges in urban India today are pollution andcongestion. Rapid urbanization has increased India’stransport demand by almost 8 times since 1980.
  Besides according to WHO, there are 14 Indian cities amongthe top 15 most polluted cities in the world.

Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP):

• The SC appointed EPCAhas identified vehicular pollution as the main reason forpollution in Delhi NCR.One of the steps recommended by EPCA under CAP is introduction of battery operated vehicles in targetedsegments of two-wheelers, three- wheelers and buses.

National E-Mobility Mission Plan:

• National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 waslaunched in 2013 as a National Mission to provide thevision and the roadmap for the faster adoption of electricvehicles and their manufacturing in India.
• Under it, the government targeted to get at least six toseven million electric vehicles on the road by 2020.
• Further in a bid to go green, the government planned to goall-electric in terms of new car sales in the country by theyear 2030. However, recently this target was reduced to30%.
• National E-mobility Programme aims to provide animpetus to the entire e-mobility ecosystem that includeselectric vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructuredevelopment companies, fleet operators, serviceproviders, etc.
• State-run Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) isresponsible for procuring electric vehicles for theGovernment.
• In August 2019, Ministry of Road Transport and Highwayshas set targets for complete switch to electric vehicles in 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler segment: 2-wheeler segmentunder 150cc from April 2025, 3-wheeler segment fromApril 2023.
• Accordingly, under the NEMMP the Department of HeavyIndustry formulated a Scheme called Faster Adoption andManufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India(FAME India) Scheme in the year 2015 to promotemanufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicle technology.
• The Phase-I of this Scheme was initially launched for aperiod of 2 years, commencing from 1st April 2015, whichwas subsequently extended from time to time and the lastextension was allowed up to 31st March 2019.
• The 1st Phase of FAME India Scheme was implementedthrough four focus areas namely:Demand Creation,Technology Platform,Pilot Project andCharging Infrastructure.
• Market creation through demand incentives was aimed atincentivizing all vehicle segments i.e. 2-Wheelers, 3-Wheelers Auto, Passenger 4-Wheeler vehicles, LightCommercial Vehicles and Buses.
• Under the NEMMP 2020, there is an ambitious target toachieve 6-7 million sales of hybrid and electric vehicles bythe year 2020.
• In February, 2019, the Union cabinet had approved theproposal for implementation of Phase II of FAME Schemefor promotion of Electric Mobility in the country. Thisscheme is the expanded version of the FAME -I.

Objectives of the scheme:

• The main objective of the scheme is to encourage FasterAdoption of Electric and Hybrid Vehicle by way of offeringupfront incentive on purchase of Electric vehicles and alsoby way of establishing a necessary charging Infrastructurefor electric vehicles.
• Based on the experience gained in the Phase-I of FAMEIndia Scheme, it has been observed that sufficient numberof charging infrastructure is required to achieve expectedoutcome of the plan, which is being addressed presently inPhase-II of FAME Scheme.
• Department of Heavy Industry notified Phase-II of theScheme in March 2019 with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 Croresfor a period of 3 years commencing from 1st April 2019.
• The scheme will help in addressing the issue ofenvironmental pollution and fuel security. Emphasis is onelectrification of the public transportation that includesshared transport.
• The scheme proposes for establishment of charginginfrastructure, whereby about 2700 charging stations willbe established in metros, other million plus cities, smartcities and cities of Hilly states across the country so thatthere will be availability of at least one charging station in agrid of 3 km x 3 km.
• Establishment of Charging stations arealso proposed on major highways connecting major cityclusters.

Limitations of Li-ion batteries:

• The complete fleet of EVscurrently is run on LiBs which poses a major challenge forswitch to EVs.
• LiBs are expensive, they are not suitable for long-distance travel, the LiBs used in EVs are about 500 Kgs and makes up forbulk of the weight of the cars.
• LiBs use lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese which arein short supply in the world restricted to Bolivia, Chile.
• Charging infrastructure.
• Battery recycling: For this government has proposedbattery swapping stations.
• Possible Job losses: Besides EVs have lesser number ofmoving parts (about 20 compared to 2000 in gasolinevehicles) in them as compared to gasoline vehicles.
• This isbecause of constant torque generated at all speeds. As aresult, the transmission system, gearbox, clutch etc. arenot needed. This results in loss of jobs in the MSME sectorin India which produces many of these auto parts.

Way forward:

• However, India needs auto industry's active participationto ease electric mobility transition.
• The auto and battery industries could collaborate toenhance customer awareness, promote domesticmanufacturing, promote new business models, conductR&D for EVs and components and must consider newbusiness models to promote EVs.
• Government should focus on a phased manufacturing planto promote EVs, provide fiscal and non-fiscal incentives forphased manufacturing of EVs and batteries.
• Transformation to EVs will create enormous economic,social and environmental benefits for the citizens of India.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q1.With reference to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), consider the following statements:
1. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has recently redefined ‘pledge’ in the regulatory laws to protect client securities.
2. Onus of bonafide pledge created from margin account of a stock broker will now lie with the depository following the SEBI amendment.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: C
Mains Questions:
Q1. What do you mean by the National E-Mobility Mission Plan? What are the major objectives of the scheme?