Electric vehicles: Why change is needed and how to make it happen

There are three key reasons why countries need to electrify their vehicle fleet. One is climate change. The transport sector guzzles massive amounts of oil (petrol and diesel) and globally contributes roughly 15 per cent of annual carbon dioxide emissions. Zero-emission vehicles, or electric vehicles (EVs), replace oil with electricity, which is ideally generated in renewable-energy plants, and are seen as the solution. The second reason, which is more important for Indian cities, is that replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with zero-emission ones will reduce local pollution. And third: It will save us valuable foreign exchange because oil consumption will lessen. 

All of these are valid reasons to act. But these alone cannot usher in the change that is needed. We need a reset: A review of what we are doing and why, so that we can move not just the vehicle electrification agenda but get the benefits that are so desperately required. 

Let us take our cities first, where electrification coalesces into multiplier benefits by reducing toxic air pollution, saving on foreign exchange, and mitigating greenhouse emissions. All good, but only if we are clear about the intent of the policy and then drive its outcome — deliberately and at scale. It was in 2019 that the NITI Aayog laid out India’s EV ambition: By 2030, the penetration of EV sales would be 70 per cent of all new commercial cars, 30 per cent of private cars, 40 per cent of buses, and 80 per cent of two- and three-wheelers. We are still far from this — as of mid-2025, the only segment that is surging is three-wheelers, with close to 60 per cent of new registration being EVs. These are mostly non-branded, locally built vehicles that crowd roads but provide an affordable commute. The rest of the EV fleet transition is too little to speak about; 5-6 per cent of the new registrations of cars, two-wheelers, or even buses are EVs. This makes no dent at all in reducing pollution, oil imports or decarbonisation. 

This is when we know that vehicles are the top contributors to the toxins we breathe. The problem is not just with the different categories of vehicles that add to pollution, but also with their numbers on the road that add to congestion and in turn to pollution. So, the twin action agenda for air pollution control is to make the transition to clean vehicles and to reduce the overall numbers. When Delhi transitioned to compressed natural gas (CNG) in the early 2000s, it targeted gross polluting vehicles such as buses, taxis, and auto-rickshaws. This category of public and commercial vehicles has the highest mileage of travel in any city, particularly Delhi, and the science of pollution is clear that the longer the travel, the greater the emissions. In addition, a public subsidy given for replacing old vehicles with newer CNG models was directed towards upgrading the mass transit system — providing space for people to move, not vehicles. 

But Delhi’s story went wrong — a policy mistake we must not repeat because it negates the gains of clean air and wastes public investment. Delhi, in the two decades after its CNG revolution, has not been able to sufficiently improve its public transport so that it restricts the growth of vehicles on the road. Delhi adds some 1,800 new personal vehicles each day. Of those over 500 are private cars. The country on the whole adds over 10,000 private cars on to its roads every day. This implosion of vehicles on our roads, despite all the new flyovers and road networks, has meant that we are stuck in traffic, speeding down. My colleagues at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysed hourly travel time data, extracted using Google application programming interfaces (APIs), and found that during weekdays, Delhi witnesses an average speed reduction of 41 per cent during morning peak hours and 56 per cent during the evening rush. The correlation between hours spent in traffic and growing air pollution is well established. But the story gets worse: Another study by my colleagues found that buses were stuck in the same traffic and these chronic delays meant that ridership goes down as people shift to more dependable private transport. The Delhi Metro, which has an incredible reach now, is also losing because of the lack of last-mile connectivity, its cost and other hassles. 

So, the way ahead is to be focused and deliberate on our policy. The National Clean Air Plan (NCAP), which targets all cities with high air pollution, must target the convergence of the twin goals of cleaner vehicles and fewer vehicles. It is not enough to count only the number of new electric buses — which is crucial — but also its modal share in traffic so that each city plans to scale up public transport and make it possible for us to spend less time and money on commute, more quality time at home, and most critically, breathe air that does not make us ill. This is not all. The question is: Do we really need private EVs in India and the rest of the world? I will discuss this next time.

The author is at the Centre for Science and Environment. sunita@cseindia.org, X: @sunitanar