Energy Vehicle
India today is one of the leading top ten automotive markets in the world and provides e-vehicles to potential buyers by targeting middle-class population and also provides the steady economic growth in the market. The rising environmental concerns have increased the need for the businesses to make the supply chain sustainable. They are moving towards a low carbon energy supply during this century (Li, et al., 2011). There are many low and zero carbon energy technologies that are being adopted by the organizations to reduce their carbon footprint. This report is aimed to investigate the current state of alternatives to petrol/diesel road vehicles i.e. e-vehicle and its application in India. In addition, impact of e-vehicles on other supply system are also studied and along with that role of e-vehicles within the energy system. With the help of this study, the prospects for future technical development in the automotive market will also determine in order to protect the environment (Balachandra, et al., 2010). On the other hand, barriers and opportunities are also identified in order to understand the market for e-vehicles in India. In this report, personal views on technology will also be considered and stated with evidence in order to understand the e-vehicle efficiency and effectiveness in the customer’s mind.
The energy vehicles or e-vehicles are the battery vehicles which do not require any type of fuel and chemical energy. These vehicles are considered as the best alternative of the petrol or diesel vehicles and are based on the electric power. In the research study of Amjadi & Williamson (2010), energy vehicles are defined as also electric a vehicle which uses rechargeable batteries for storing the energy in it for running the vehicle efficiently and smoothly. Nowadays, electric or energy vehicles are dominating the sales of Hybrid electric vehicles in many countries as electric vehicles helps in elimination the carbon emission as well as protect the environment from the harmful pollution.
In the mid 19th century, electric vehicle came into existence at the time when electricity was among the innovative methods of providing comfort and reducing the pollution and carbon emission. An electric vehicle includes electric trains, electric cars, electric cycles, electric scooters and many others (Furtado, 2017). On the other hand, there are some hybrid electric vehicles which combine conventional power trains with electric propulsion effectively. For example: Toyota Prius, Chevrolet Volt are few hybrid electric cars which run through extended battery electric system.
On the other hand, energy vehicles don’t consume the energy even it is idle but in internal combustion engines, fuel is consumed while vehicle is idling. In concern to it, it is also determined that electric vehicle are more efficiency as its total carbon emission is lower than the gasoline or fuel vehicles (Davis, et al., 2010). In other words, electric vehicles are innovative idea to renew the interest among the customers due to high environmental impact i.e., from petroleum based vehicles to electric vehicles.
Current state of e-vehicles in India
In today’s emerging automotive market, the electric vehicles (e-vehicle) are growing in popularity in India. Currently, these vehicles are available in form of scooters, skateboards and bicycles, etc. in India. The rising concerns towards environment in India have raised the demand of the electric vehicles. But in oppose of it, Zhou, et al., (2013) stated that the demand of e-vehicles in India is not much because there is shortage of electricity due to which public prefers to buy a petroleum based vehicles for travelling long routes. But in India, environment awareness influenced that buying decision of public for e-vehicles.
Now, people are becoming aware about the e-vehicles and their impact on the environment that has created opportunities for the manufacturers of e-vehicles. In 2016, the sale of these vehicles was accounted for 62% of the total electric vehicles. In India, the electricity vehicle currently is facing a challenge due to high tax (GST) which will be included with the e-vehicles prices and because of which sales of e-vehicles got affected to a large extent (Birol, 2010). The electric vehicle market is changing in India as big automobile firms are focusing towards developing and launching an energy vehicle which develop the economy in terms of technology and efficiency. For instance, Tata Motors announced that in this year (2017) company will launch its first ever electric vehicle for Indian market.
The government is also engage for protecting the environment from high pollution by boosting up the sales of energy vehicle. For increasing the sales of energy vehicle, government developed new policies which pushed the customer to buy the vehicles (Allcott & Wozny, 2014). During the study, it also identified that Indian government currently focuses on measuring the range of leasing of e-vehicles from new technology which is transferred to firms for production of batteries which will be use in automobiles.
Likely role within the energy system, and impact on other supply systems and carbon emission
Expanding utilization of the regulatory vehicles turns into a serious harm to the environment. It is because these vehicles discharge the harmful gasses like Carbon monoxide (CO) that specifically influence the earth and the public of the country. In this way, because of expanding utilization of the regulatory vehicles and expanding level of the environmental pollution, the most of the organizations are adopting new technologies and innovation in the vehicles (Tulpule, et al., 2010). In this, the e-vehicle is an example of the innovation due to their impact on the environment and effectiveness to make eco- friendly environment.
In the meantime, the e-vehicles are viable in terms of cost and time in light of the fact that there is no requirement for these vehicles of more resources and additionally high maintenance that is the reason different profit and non-profit organizations are supporting the car manufacturers to produce the e-vehicles (Jacobson & Delucchi, 2011). Moreover, the utilization of e-vehicles is effective to handle the environmental issues by reducing the carbon emission from vehicles. These vehicles have batteries for power that helps to reduce the level of harmful gases. It is because use of fuel in the regular vehicles causes high pollution in the environment. But, by using the e-vehicles, the amount of the pollution can be reduced to protect the environment.
In India, there are long routes for transportation of goods from one state to another. It means the long route transportation may cause high pollution in the environment through noise pollution and air pollution. The use of e-vehicles is helpful in reducing the level of pollution on long routes (Wu, et al., 2012). The impact of e-vehicles on the electricity grid and fuels is high in other countries where electric vehicles demand is high like China. But in India, the demand for electricity vehicle is low due to shortage of electricity problem.
The impact of e-vehicles on other supply system is adverse as the demand for e-vehicles in India is less due to which manufacturers are facing problem and challenges to sale the energy vehicle in the market. While studying, it is found that that the demand for other supply system is high in Indian market as the customer are demanding more hybrid vehicles which provide the comfort (Shindell, et al., 2011). Thus, the impact of e-vehicles on other system will affect the overall market demand and increase the prices of the electricity and decrease the demand of fuel.
Prospects for future technical development
The future prospects of energy vehicle is bright as growth of e-vehicles in the country is increasing as the demand for e-vehicle will be more as new technology enters or implemented in the manufacturing processes. There are various benefits of the e-vehicles in the world as it will reduce the carbon emission as well as avoids the pollution to increase and harm public or environment (Kumar, et al., 2010). There are many large firms like Tesla Motors, Hero, Honda, Mahindra, Toyota, Volvo, etc are producing the e-vehicles. Google is additionally delivering the e-vehicles and furthermore consistently doing research on that to make viable and more valuable e-vehicles.
In addition, the contribution and future prospects of technical development on implementation of electric and hybrid vehicle is effective and it help in developing the efficiency of electric vehicle by using a charging batteries (Lema & Lema, 2012). The technical development will also support the company in production and consumption of the energy system to a large extent and that will result into the economic development and growth.
Barriers and opportunities (including costs)
The Indian market still has not fully accepted the electric and hybrid vehicles but the attitude of the customers is slowly changing towards e-vehicles in India. The Indian people rely more on LPG and CNG rather than alternative fuels like electric energy. This attitude has discouraged the car manufacturers to get any hope in India. But, the growth in acceptance for hybrid cars can be noticed in recent years (van Vliet, et al., 2011). In fact, the government of India is also optimistic about the bright future of electric vehicles in India and aims to have an all-electric car fleet in the country by 2030. Due to this positive trend in Indian market, the carmakers are entering the hybrid and electric car space.
The India is also facing issues related to environmental pollution due to increasing use of the regulatory vehicles. Even, pollution has caused bad impact on the health of people in the country by generating diseases. In order to manage this issue, the government of India is also supportive for the hybrid vehicle manufacturers to deliver the e-vehicles for preventing the contamination by vehicles in environment and building healthy environment.
But at the same time, in India, people are price sensitive as they prefer the products with incentive schemes. In India, the relative contribution of the incentives in making hybrid and electric technologies as compared to conventional alternatives in the market. There was less interest of manufacturers in production of e-vehicles in India (Dijk, et al., 2013). The manufacturers were not interested to introduce the hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles due to cost concerns. The reason is obvious because it is costly to product the hybrid cars because of high investment in technologies and techniques. But the government has taken initiative and started the flagship program namely the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) in 2015 that offers a subsidy on the retail price of passenger cars. The subsidy from the FAME scheme is used as incentive mechanism to impact the hybrid and electric vehicle in India. It can be helpful to reduce the cost of production and prices of the hybrid vehicles to the Indian customers.
Apart from this, India is a populous country as the population is increasing with great pace. The increasing population also raises the demand of vehicles for transportation as the production of hybrid vehicles can meet the increasing demand of the vehicles and also manage the concerns of the environmental protection (Anderson & Anderson, 2010).
It can be barrier for the hybrid car manufacturers to get the greater market in India due to increasing innovation in the regular vehicles. The auto manufacturers are also providing the regular vehicles with more innovative features and facilities that are contributing in improving the living standards of the Indian people (Patel, et al., 2016). Regarding this, it may be more difficult for the hybrid manufacturers to introduce new features and facilities in cost effective way. Apart from this, in India, infrastructure for the e-vehicles is not quite well as there is lack of the recharge stations for e-vehicles in India that causes barriers for their growth and development. It is also a big challenge for the users of these vehicles to be restricted by the amount of electricity stored in the batteries of these vehicles (Saxena, et al., 2014). People are not able to use these vehicles on long routes due to lack of storage capacity and shortage of recharge stations.
It can also be a major issue for the hybrid vehicle manufacturers to produce and sell these vehicles in India because the government of India has applied the new GST regime by implementing a 43% tax on hybrid cars instead of the current 20-30% tax. This move will discourage the hybrid vehicle manufacturers because it will increase the prices of hybrid cars in India and put it on par with the prices of luxury petrol and diesel cars (Shoeb & Maqbool, 2017). But on the other hand, it is also determined that existing hybrid vehicle will get change into a designed vehicle and those vehicle will be more customer friendly in terms of energy consumption and efficiency.
In India, the e-vehicle has started from last few years like e-rickshaw has launched which run with the battery system and this reduces the use of fuel and protects the environment and public from the harmful pollution. The major challenge to launch the e-vehicle in India is lack of government support i.e., if government rules and regulation are not clear or government don’t provide license for launching the vehicle and so on (Sharma & Kothari, 2016). In India, the major challenge is problem for charging the battery from the electricity for commercial purpose. At the same time, it is also understood that electricity vehicle requires a charging stations and in support of which government of Delhi agreed to provide only if there is large number of energy vehicle launched or sold in the country. Thus, there are some barriers and opportunities which restrict and promote the use of e-vehicles in the country by customer awareness regarding adverse impact of pollution on environment.
Personal view on the technology, based on the evidence
On the basis of the above discussion and available evidence, it can be stated that the e-vehicle is a significant technology in context of India due to rising concerns related to environmental pollution. This technology is beneficial for the human life and also environment. It provides several benefits related to low carbon pollution, preservation of non-renewable sources and climate changes (Patel, et al., 2016). However, there are some negatives and challenges while using this technology that raises the need for making improvements in the existing technology. According to this study, it can be stated that energy vehicle consumption will reduce the pollution but at the same time it will develop the electricity system which will reduce the shortage of electricity (Suh, et al., 2011). This study also helped in determining that use of innovative technology will influence the buying decision of the consumer for using the e-vehicles. The implementation of technology in manufacturing firm will help the company id reducing the cost related to oil, fuel or electricity grids which are required for hybrid vehicle production. Thus, this report can also be used as an evidence for promoting and encouraging the firms and customers to focus on electricity vehicle.
There is need for the government and rims to promote the establishment of the recharge stations for e-vehicles as investment decisions should be made regarding the number, location and capacity of these stations. It is crucial for the firms to make more investment in innovation and technological upgrading to improve the battery life and storage for longer period. In like manner, the research and development center is focusing on developing a new technology which is so effective that it automatically attract the customer interest towards the e-vehicles. On the other side, automobile manufacturing firm should focus on safety and security measures as well as design an attractive charging infrastructure for the e-vehicles so that customer purchases the more e-vehicles.
On the other hand, it is recommended to the government of India that they should focus on promoting the e-vehicles rather than developing more and more new policies or schemes. In addition, government should reduce the tax rate (GST) which is 43% charged on energy vehicle as a tax. This increase in tax rate has affected the demand doe e-vehicle in the country so it can be recommended to government to reduce their tax rate and focus on promoting the e-vehicle by providing effective schemes. Simply, government should focus on lowing the tax and interest rate on loan which is taken for purchasing an electricity vehicle.
The other recommendation to firms are that they should join hands with the oil marketing companies i.e., they make a collaborative participation for developing an effective infrastructure model such as battery pump model for creating a sustainable environment. So, it is also recommended to the company to develop a model for standard operating practices in order to improve the charging facilities.
From the above study, it can be concluded that in India, energy vehicle is providing an opportunity to the automobile industry in terms of sustainable development. While studying, it is found that future market penetration is high as the impact of energy vehicle on the energy consumption will also be high and that will not be easily negligible. Currently, the Indian market is not attractive for energy vehicle as in India, there is shortage of electricity and for energy vehicle there is high need of electricity to charge the battery. The future prospect of e-vehicle is effective and efficient as new technology will be developed and research will be continue in order to improve the facilities and technology services in automobile vehicles in the country. The Indian market is facing problem in terms of environment pollution from the Hybrid vehicles which runs from fuel or petrol or diesel. The electric vehicle provides the opportunity to the automobile manufacturer by providing a new technology from the research and development centers. On the other hand, personal views are also provided for the technology which used for improving the existing technology to reduce the carbon emission. The recommendations are also provided to the automobile firm regarding investment and using effective technology for improving the battery life of e-vehicle and cost low. At last, it can be summarized that energy vehicle demand in future will be high in comparison to ICE vehicle as government of India is taking major steps to protect environment from harmful pollution.
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