Abstract:

At the recent COP26 summit at Glasgow, India has set a target to reach net zero emissions by 2070, which shows that it has come a long way from its first Nationally Determined Contri­butions under the Paris Agree­ment. In less than 10 years, by 2030, India aims to meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from non-fossil fuel energy, which is indeed an ambitious, but much-needed target. According to the Interna­tional En­ergy Agency, 13.5 per cent of India’s energy-related CO2 emissions is contributed by the transport sector, and road transport accounts for 90 per cent of the transport sector’s total energy consumption. Pre­vious­ly, it was expected that India could achieve an electric vehicle (EV) sales penetration of 70 per cent for com­mercial cars, 30 per cent for private cars, 40 per cent for buses and 80 per cent for two- and three-wheelers by 2030 if Phase II of the Faster Adoption and Ma­nufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicle (FAME) sc­heme and other supporting sc­he­mes and policies are successful (NITI Aa­yog and Rocky Mountain Institute, 2019). Now, in light of the new focus on NDCs and its eff­ect on the decarbonisation of the Indian transport sector, it is obvious that EVs and charging infrastructure will become even more important.