According to Ather Energy Co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta, the Indian E2W industry is in a process of rapid transformation. To a question on his thought on the same, Mehta, in his recent post on X, said that policy alone cannot drive this transition and policy support essentially acts to signal to the entire ecosystem of the government’s commitment towards a fully electric future.
Not bothered by skepticism hurled at them, Mehta is optimistic about the growth potential of the E2W industry. He feels that complete electrification remains among the best paths to cut fossil fuel dependence and emissions. “Naysayers in the industry will keep nit-picking on new tech, but there’s perhaps no single lever more powerful than 100 percent electrification to reduce fossil fuel dependence and emissions reduction,” said Mehta.
To an article by Indian G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant underlining the need for urgent electrification of transportation in India, Mehta posted, “I just can’t help but believe that we are on to an amazing transformation in our industry and will build an enormous global behemoth out of India in E2Ws. However, there’s still a lot to solve.”
Mehta said that while technology and products improve, customer adoption stays at 5-6 percent. He said that for stakeholders to know the government is committed to a fully electric vision there has to be policy support. Faster adoption rates with higher capacities, more infrastructure, more research and development, more products, and suppliers—a larger ecosystem—have been centered in the demand incentives, he mentioned. “Subsidies are not about helping companies grow; they’re about accelerating adoption for the entire industry,” Mehta asserted.
Reflecting on how the government helped the support of the industry for EVs, he admitted that user-friendly policies rolled out in 2021 gave much-needed support. This made EVs economical for consumer consumption and also gave startups a chance to scale up their research and development investment to afterburner mode for the very first time. “This has allowed the industry to brutally cut costs and expand its portfolio and infrastructure on all fronts,” Mehta added.
He drew attention to the fact that this new FAME policy dovetailed with the new capability the industry had acquired in bringing down costs through innovation and Economies of Scale. It existing reduced the maximum benefit per vehicle to Rs 10,000 from Rs 55,000, which allowed the government to support a fivefold increase in E2W adoption.
Reacting to criticism, Mehta reiterated that complete electrification of road transport would significantly reduce dependence on fossil fuels and lower emissions. “Electrification coupled with ‘green-ification’ of power generation with solar and wind is an incredibly simple and powerful level our country needs today,” he said.
It is demand-linked incentives combined with localization targets that, according to Mehta, will help drive a healthy local component ecosystem—almost a precondition if India is to occupy centre-space as an EV manufacturing global hub. Localization has the effect of reducing dependence on imported components and creates a self-sustaining industry that will not only spur export growth but cement India’s position at the forefront of the global EV revolution.
Ola Electric founder and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal, pitching for electrification, said on X that ICE vehicles were becoming costlier compared to EVs. “Only a question of time before EV purchase price becomes way lower than ICE vehicles. China is already there,” Aggarwal wrote. He also cautioned that any firm which does not believe in EVs makes a strategic error.
Source: Ather Energy