Electric Vehicles: Making rural India self-sustainable

Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future of automobile. India’s focus towards EVs includes all vehicles, i.e. two-, three- and four-wheelers. Of these, two-wheelers are taking the lead, and around 70% of EVs in India are two-wheelers.

A lot of rural areas in India have the infrastructure in place for energy generation from solar panels, and they need a charging infrastructure to use the generated energy all day. If state policymakers pay attention on rural infrastructure, they can try to make such policies for rural consumers that increase the deployment of EVs and heavy machinery. Come to think of it, EVs, because they store electricity, can also supply extra energy to the grid.

Transforming rural infrastructure

For rural consumers, EVs can be the game-changer; during daytime these consumers can use solar pumps for irrigation as well as charging their EVs. In the current scenario, rural consumers depend upon diesel generators to operate machines for irrigation.

Policymakers need to provide an incentive-based energy tariff structure for consumers and increase the interest to participate in grid operations and supply extra amount of energy to other consumers. It can reduce the burden on the grid, generate extra amount of energy for utilities, generate green energy, reduce the environmental impact due to burning of fossil fuels, make rural consumers self-sustainable, increase the deployment of EVs, and supply all-day electricity to rural consumers.

Forming a robust policy for EVs

State governments can define policies for EV enhancement. The objective of state governments is focused on absolute sales of EVs and a higher percentage of total vehicle sales.