#Opinion: Driving forward the momentum in adopting EV technology

India’s transition to electric vehicles has been gathering pace over the last few years due to a combination of factors. Of these, improvements in technology and policy support play a crucial role. Battery technology has witnessed a constant learning curve in the 2010s, and this has seen two significant developments.

Firstly, the cost of batteries has fallen drastically. From more than $1000/kWh in 2010, prices currently range between $100 and $150/kWh. This has made the technology cheaper and accessible to more people. And second, cheaper batteries and better battery design have resulted in new electric vehicles having a much higher range than models from just a few years back. The median range of an electric car sold in the US in 2011 was about 70 miles. In 2020, that jumped to 250 miles. We see both these trends, falling battery costs and advancements in the range of EVs, to continue well into the 2020s.

Another important trend that we foresee is a multitude of technologies coming up to push EV growth. One such technology that has already come into the mainstream in India is battery swapping. While EVs have seen increasing adoption, they remain out of reach for most people due to high initial costs. The long charging times and the lack of an extensive ecosystem to support it means that there is still some hesitancy among users to buy an EV.
Battery swapping solves these issues and offers users a quick, easy, and economical way of moving to EVs. It brings the cost of the EV on par with a petrol vehicle and allows users to recharge batteries on a subscription basis, thus making it affordable. Swapping stations integrated with retail outlets mean that users can easily find these spots in their daily operations and swap a recharged battery almost instantly. The impact of this technology is immense. It provides a way for tens of millions of 2 and 3-wheelers in India to go electric almost instantly, with benefits ranging from fuel savings to reduction of air and noise pollution in cities.

We expect ice variants, and fixed battery EVs to coexist, and see innovations happening on both fronts. 2-wheeler EVs will continue to see the same improvements as other EV segments, such as falling prices and increased range. We’ve already seen this in India, where the current class of 2-wheeler EVs offer improvements on all fronts compared to products from previous generations.

Finally, we expect EVs to come into their own over this decade. Many current EVs are modelled on ICE variants, be it in cars or 2-wheelers, with their design and build borrowed from fossil fuel models. In the coming years, we will see EVs being designed from the ground up. Startups in the sector are already doing this, and incumbent vehicle manufacturers will soon create a separate class of products for EVs. All this means that EVs are set to see a sea change in both their build and their technologies, driving forward the momentum in adopting this technology.