India’s Electric Car Charging Hiccup, And Half-A-Million Vehicle Opportunity

If Tesla, Inc. were to sell a car in India today, it wouldn't be allowed to set up charging stations. That's because only power distributors can offer electricity in the country.

The Electricity Act needs to be amended to allow private companies to get into public power storage, Saurabh Kumar, managing director of state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd., told BloombergQuint. Petrol pump-like charging infrastructure, managed by public-private partnership or the private sector, is required to promote e-mobility.

Amending the law will be a procedural change. Yet, it's symptomatic of any reform in India, where myriad rules need to be tweaked to push it through. The country stands at 130 on World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been easing rules to improve the ranking.

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The government has already placed the order for 500 electric sedans from Tata Motors Ltd. and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. as part of its ambitious target to end dependence on fossil-fuel driven passenger transport by 2030. It's also invited tenders for charging infrastructure. The Indian arm of Swiss power equipment and robotics company ABB Ltd. told BloombergQuint recently that it has bid for setting up 4,500 such stations.

Tata Power too started its first charging station in suburban Mumbai for battery-power vehicles like Mahindra e2o and Nissan Leaf, according to the company's website.

On its part, Tesla had said in April that it will launch its most affordable car—the Tesla 3—in India by the end of 2017. After India clarified that no mandatory local sourcing is required, Musk in June tweeted that the company is in talks with the government seeking relief from import penalties till its plant is set up.

Government Cars: A Half-A-Million Electric Vehicle Opportunity

Energy Efficiency Services, that helps save on energy costs, is fronting the big push towards electric mobility.

“We have restricted ourselves to public sector which also has a very large number of vehicles. Half a million cars are used by the government departments alone,” Kumar said.

If there is a push to convert all the government-owned cars in a time-bound manner, Kumar is sure a lot of new car and battery makers will enter India. States like Delhi, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have shown interest in the e-vehicle programme, he said.

Apart from Tata Motors and M&M, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has already announced its plans to manufacture electric vehicles in India. Nissan Motors India Ltd., Renault Motors India Pvt. Ltd. and Hyundai Motors India Ltd. are some of the players which have expressed interest and are expected to participate given the large order size, Kumar said.

Energy Efficiency Services—promoted by state-run NTPC Ltd., Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd., Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd. and Power Finance Corporation Ltd.— is looking to buy 10,000 electric vehicles by June-July, Kumar said. That includes the tender for 500 to be delivered by Tata Motors and M&M by November-end.

“The next tender to be opened in April will hopefully be bigger than 10,000 electric vehicles,” Kumar said.

Storage Infrastructure Push

Energy Efficiency Services has already forayed into Canada and the U.K. It will soon start work in Canada to stablise the Ontario electric grid, Kumar said. Ontario moved to source 40 percent of its power requirement from renewable sources. “This brought in grid instability. The company is partnering with Leclanche SA, Swiss maker of lithium-ion storage batteries, for on-grid stablisation. The project would cost $120 million and the company board is expected to approve it, he said.

The Indian company is looking to establish battery storage infrastructure manufacturing in North America. “These are frontline technologies and at some point in time, we would require this storage infrastructure in India as well,” Kumar said.

Watch the full interview with Saurabh Kumar, managing director of Energy Efficiency Services here.

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