Why India's Fuel Demand Is Still Rising Despite EV Adoption
Fuel consumption by India was rising in December 2023 as the nation moved towards all-electric automobiles and rolled back another leg of subsidizing fossil fuel. As for the figures revealed by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, Petroleum Ministry and Natural Gas, overall fuel demand registered a rise of 2.1% on an annualised basis in December to 20.67 million metric tonnes.
Among all the products, petrol or otherwise known as gasoline led the pack first with a 10.8% YoY growth to 3.3 million tons. Diesel fuel sales have also seen a 6% growth to 8.1 million tons. LPG sales have also grown favorably at 5.8% sales elevation to 2.78 million tons. Naphtha has declined by 22.7%, thereby reducing the sales to 1.07 million tonnes. In December, the consumption of bitumen and fuel oil grew by 6.6% and 1.1%, respectively.
The surge in fuel usage does create some cause for alarm over long-run sustainability in the attainment of the sustainability objective of India as it is gradually
