The year 2019–20 saw a ~20% spike in electric vehicles (EV) sales in India, as per the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV). Transport aggregators such as Ola and e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Flipkart are planning to ramp up the number of EVs in their fleet. This indicates the willingness of people to switch to EVs for a good cause – namely, improved air quality.
Yet, the EV adoption rate in India is still not significant, with the total sale of EVs being only about 1% of total vehicle sales in India. This is primarily due to the absence of public charging infrastructure for the passenger segment and the high upfront cost, battery range, etc.
Though the utilisation of public chargers is low worldwide, given the easy availability and convenience of home charging, globally, studies have inferred that public charging stations provide a greater sense of security and psychological comfort to EV users, and encourage more people to switch to EVs.
