The move to electric vehicles (EVs) will need a considerable investment of ₹1.8 lakh crore in setting up charging stations and other infrastructure in the country, according to a report by Feedback Consulting.

To realise the EV mobility dream, the Indian government should not follow the solar panels story by depending on China for batteries, it cautioned.

Care should be taken to take the Indian auto industry to the next level and policy-makers must make sure that Make in India is seriously followed to enable electronics design and manufacturing to have a significant play, the report pointed out.

Various policies have been put in place to promote the electric vehicle as a future mode of mobility. But there are hiccups as well,” says A M. Devendranath, Vice-President, Feedback Consulting.

In the journey of EVs, compared to China, we are in the same stage as we were in the solar industry five years ago. Over the last five years, we have seen how Chinese solar imports have dealt a death blow to our panels manufacturing industry and the Make in India story is a non-starter here.

"Indian government needs to make sure that we do not get trapped in a similar situation in the EVs story, as there is every possibility that China will present competition to Indian Industry in this business as well," the report pointed out.

There is an urgent need for a strong policy framework to promote Indian manufacturing and support from the Government to make Indian stakeholders move towards EV gradually.

Also, the government needs to help the Indian auto ancillary industry move towards making EV components in India and a series of support initiatives will be required to develop products, testing infrastructure and also to reskill our huge workforce in this area.

The government has already taken the lead and is promoting Power PSUs to take the lead in setting up EV charging infrastructure in the country.

There is a need for more action on getting lithium manufacturing in India move towards local manufacturing in a big way and not be a nation of assemblers with core imports from China. “This would need serious work in securing the raw materials for battery manufacturing,” he said.

The EV charging infrastructure would need large investments and this investment should be directed towards ‘Made in India’ chargers as it will help our electronics manufacturing in a big way.

There will also be a need to set up a global technology centre in the motors design and manufacturing space going forward and global firms should be encouraged to invest in India in this.

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