Last week, at the ABP Ideas of India Summit, Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said that despite minor speed bumps the success of India's overall electrification program has been "spectacular". He went on to say that the electric two-wheeler success story has already put India on the global EV Map and stated how the homegrown start-ups have created a unique niche in the Rs 70,000 price category. This success was not anticipated by the legacy two-wheeler OEMs, he pointed out.
"I had the founder of India's largest two-wheeler company admitting that they didn't take my prophecy seriously three years ago and made the mistake to assume that EVs won't work in India, due to multiple challenges," Gadkari recalled.
Another factor Gadkari said will further accelerate EV transition is the investment by domestic EV players have targeted in lithium-ion battery manufacturing. He said India discovering lithium deposits in J&K is an encouraging development for the entrepreneurs who have taken big bets and put up their factories backed by emerging rich component ecosystems preparing them to handle the brisk sales across categories.
The MORTH minister further pointed out that global lithium prices are coming down and it will help the industry get EV products on par with ICE. "From a high of $130 kWh to currently US$ 115kWh currently, the prices will further cool down to US$ 100 kWh" and negate the high cost of batteries for OEMs bringing their offering at par. Gadkari said global benchmark lithium prices which were about $90,000 a metric ton in November have steeply dropped by 33% to $60,000 a metric ton as of now, with spot prices likely to further depreciate to $53,304/ton in the near term.
India is growing much faster than other global auto capitals and the shift to EVs is expected to further push the growth of the domestic auto industry, the MoRTH minister said. “India is all set to become the EV & auto capital of the world”.
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from Autocar Indiahttps://cdni.autocarindia.com/ExtraImages/20230301032041_SC.jpg
