| |DECEMBER 202019e-autos and e-two wheelers are the most promising seg-ments for electrification in India and are expected to ac-count for over four-million units by 2025. The period post COVID 19 will serve as a perfect chance for EV brands to connect with their customers from these segments. A lot of top brands are using this time to get in touch with customers through digital medi-ums to improve loyalty and sustain brand awareness. Since e-commerce is on the rise, EV brands may also use this downtime to create a stronger online presence for more visibility. By making the most of on the opportunities, EV companies will be able to recuperate their impetus once the contagion is confined. They will be back in action on the road to EV uprising in the country.What are the major challenges for the EV Market In IndiaCharging InfrastructureAs per recent reports, India was reported to around 500 plus charging stations in 2018, while more are being ap-proved by the government of India. Countries like China have over 600K charging points as of now. The challenge doesn't end here, we also have major deficiency of private parking places which is one major deterrent for electric vehicles acceptance.Pricing points of Electric VehiclesAn average cost of electric cars in India is around INR 12-15 Lakh, which is way higher than the regular mid-segment car in the range of INR 4 Lakh-7Lakh running on diesel and petrol. The price range of electric scooters and motorcycles in India is between the price range of INR 60K ­ INR 1.5 Lakh, as compared to INR 40K ­ INR 50K cost range of bikes and even lower for scooters. Under existing settings, it is going to be hard to make a decent price proposition immediately unless the cost comes down substantially. Risk of hikes in electricity demandThere is a major risk that EV charging can lead to a severe hike in electricity demand which will eventually put risk on India's already burdened electricity distribution networks. Another issue is associated to charging, to go for AC (al-ternating current) or DC (direct current) chargers. Gener-ally, an AC charger takes around six hours to charge an EV whereas DC chargers are super-fast and take only around 40-50 minutes to one hour to completely charge a vehicle.Lithium IssuesAs of now, India does not have considerable lithium re-serves for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. This could lead to a substantial variation in the nation's energy secu-rity primacies, with securing lithium stores, a key raw ma-terial for EV batteries, becoming as important as buying oil and gas fields overseas.The Indian EV industry confronts openly that a lot needs to be done to achieve the 2030 target. For a country like India, this serves an excellent opportunity for further scaling up specially to our domestic manufacturers. It's time we make the right use of the privileges provided in new electrification policy introduced by the government and shap-ing India's EV paradigm on a Fastrack. Girish Ramaswamy
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