Electric Mobility
If there is one position that each one of us has been in, it is pulling our hair out in traffic while muttering, “Oh God! Not again!” Unfortunately, traffic is a reality that we can’t escape. And it’s not just the seemingly endless line of cars in front of us. It is also the suffocating pollution and the excessive burning of fuel while we wait for red lights to turn green.
Delhi has recently been in the news for the high pollution levels the city is witnessing. But the rest of us living in other big cities can vouch for the fact that the pollution situation is not limited to Delhi alone. Commuting from work to home in the evenings has become a stifling task in most cities.
This scenario paints a grim picture. One that becomes grimmer when we wonder what the government is doing about rising vehicular pollution levels as well as fuel prices that keep shooting up. Well, contrary to popular belief, the government is doing something. The solution to these problems is hybrid and electric vehicles and in 2013, the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP 2020) was launched to incentivize the use and production of electric vehicles in India.
Aim to make India go electric
NEMMP 2020 was conceived to mitigate the adverse effects of vehicles on the environment and to enhance energy security. In other words, reduce pollution and conserve petroleum. The plan aims to achieve the sale of hybrid and electric vehicles to the tune of 60-70 lakh each year from 2020 onwards.
And how does the government plan to achieve these ambitious targets? In 2015, a scheme was formulated under NEMMP 2020 by the Department of Heavy Industries to facilitate the faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles. The scheme will develop the manufacturing ecosystem in a way that will allow the industry to achieve self-sustenance by 2020. Spread over two phases, this scheme will focus on technological development, pilot projects, demand creation and building infrastructure at a cost of ₹795 crore to begin with.
Of course, with such an ambitious project in the offing, there has been no shortage of government officials who have spoken out in favour of electric vehicles. Recently, Nitin Gadkari, our road transport and highways minister, talked about the government’s plan to go all electric by 2030. This means that only electric vehicles will be sold in India after 2030.
This is huge! But there is a long way to go as well. In 2016, 25,000 electric vehicles were sold in India. Comparing this to the 1,59,000 sold in US and 3,52,000 sold in China over the same period, we can safely say that India will eventually catch-up. The high upfront expenditure of purchasing electric vehicles that is keeping a lot of us away will diminish with the government’s endeavours to regulate and incentivize production and use of electric vehicles. Eventually, all of us will be driving electric vehicles only. They will not only be easy on our pockets but easy on the environment as well.
Investing in an electric future
The future of electric vehicles is–pardon the pun–electrifying and the best time to get onboard this boat is right now. There are a number of companies that will benefit from NEMMP 2020. These companies belong to diverse set of sectors like 2 and 4 wheeler manufacturers, oil & gas refining companies, chemical manufacturers etc. Instead of scouting these sectors to find the best companies to invest in, you can simply invest in the Electric Mobility smallcase.
The Electric Mobility smallcase is a portfolio of stocks of companies that are best placed to benefit from India’s drive to go electric. Check out the smallcase and see how these companies together have performed as compared to the broader markets. India is going to continue to witness rapid growth in vehicular population and a major part of that is going to be electric vehicles. The Electric Mobility smallcase will provide exposure to the growth story.
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