SwitchON Foundation

Kolkata Residents ready to buy Electric Vehicles for Clean Air

Published in: CASC

4th October, 2021

Kolkata : A study on public awareness on Electric Vehicles (EV) conducted by SwitchON Foundation was released today at the Multi-Stakeholder Panel Discussion at the 3 day Electric Vehicle Carnival organised by the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) in association with Bengal Chamber of Commerce at Eco Park on 2nd October. The study revealed that 76.8% people believe that making the shift to EV will improve air quality. The aim of the study was to understand the awareness on electric vehicles and the report gave us valuable insights on areas that need attention. The cumulative percentage of people wanting to own an EV via the study stood at 53.3%, with the majority percentage of women wanting to invest in an EV of their own at 75%.

The multi-stakeholder meeting hosted by SwitchON Foundation at the carnival on 2nd Oct. 2021 brought together eminent government officers, distinguished professors from Institutes like IIM Calcutta, UEM, business heads and EV Startup co-founders to discuss the smooth transition to Electric Mobility. All stakeholders highlighted that the transport sector is one of the major contributors to Air Pollution in cities and requires strong steps to be undertaken to make the transition to sustainable mobility. Electric vehicles have zero emissions and are therefore, eco friendly with low maintenance costs mainly consisting of battery replacements depending on the amount of usage.

Shri Debashish Sen, Chairman of NKDA & NKGSSCL and Managing Director HIDCO Ltd. in his keynote address said, “The Govt of West Bengal has come up with a EV Policy, many people are coming forward to buy EV’s, but are finding financing to be a problem, and we are bringing companies and banks to make it possible” He further spoke,

“We have decided to form a centre of excellence about Electric Vehicles as there is very little information that is available to the public about it. Soon we’ll be trying to transition to Zomato and others to e bikes and e-bicycles. C40 award for electric buses will be available within 2030 and 2000 buses will be available in Kolkata, so that there are no fuel buses. At the moment 80 electric buses are running. Within 3 to 4 months before the end of this financial year, Kolkata and adjacent areas will have enough charging stations.” Mr Sen was also the first person to have an Electric Vehicle in the Kolkata New Town area.

Speaking at the event Mr. Vinay Jaju, MD of SwitchON Foundation said “It’s a matter of time that Electric Vehicles will take over fuel based vehicles, and the switch will be just as fast as the led lighting revolution. It’s not just about saving money but also ensuring clean air which will drive demand for EVs in the future.”

The carnival meet was an endeavour to have a discussion on Sustainable Mobility and the need to promote awareness on Electric vehicles and brought together various stakeholders to discuss the transition of fuel based vehicles and even non-motorised transport to electric vehicles and mobility.

Prof. Chandradeep Mitra of IIM Calcutta who himself has been driving an Electric Vehicle since the last 5 years said “Greater adoption of Electric Vehicles needs an multi-stakeholder ecosystem approach – involving Manufacturers, Governments, Media, Service Providers, Housing Societies, and of course, consumers & Prominent Influencers – to be able to gather critical mass and use the power of ‘Network Effects’.”

Col Indrajit Roy, who leads the New Town Business club at the roundtable said. “It’s time businesses adopt and convert their fleet to Electric vehicles to breathe healthily, Be Healthy, Be more profitable. It’s important for business and also for our children”.

According to the analysis of the data collected, roughly only 26% of the respondents were aware of the EV Policy of West Bengal rolled out recently. The West Bengal Electric Vehicles Policy of 2021, released on 3rd June, was an effort to achieve net zero transport emission in order to enable 10 lakh EVs on road and develop about 1 lakh charging stations all by 2026.

The way forward stands at spreading awareness on the financial and economic advantages of an EV to the public, increasing the number of charging stations to be able to go the distance and providing Subsidy for purchasing EVs as motivation for a sustainable future.

DIGGING DEEP INTO THE STUDY

The transport sector is one of the major contributors to Air Pollution and requires strong steps to be undertaken to make the transition to sustainable mobility. Electric vehicles have zero emissions and are therefore, eco friendly with low maintenance costs mainly consisting of battery replacements depending on the amount of usage. The study mentioned above was therefore conducted to get a better understanding of the reasons behind the hesitation to own an EV and the awareness of the impact of the transport sector on the environment. Carried out through an online questionnaire it was with a varied age group to get their notions, ideas and hesitations on making the shift to EV. A wide majority of our respondents were youth in the age group of 15-25 years and predominantly petrol users. It was alarming to note that most of the respondents did not know about the existence of Electric Vehicles even with the New Town Development authority taking strong steps to increase the general outlook on sustainable mobility and mitigate some of the misconceptions regarding Electric Vehicles.

From the study it was deciphered that although close to 77% of people knew about electric cars and scooters, only a meagre 26% were informed about the state’s policy on EV making it imperative to reach out to a wider audience in order to achieve the state’s target. While 41.7% had seen an EV on road, 40.4% believed that EVs were better than fuel run vehicles. The cumulative percentage of people wanting to own an EV via the study stood at 53.3%, with the majority percentage of women wanting to invest in an EV of their own at 75%. It was refreshing to notice that 48.7% were aware of the fact that motor vehicles are a major source of air pollution in the city. Very few amidst the people, at 15.8% interviewed, felt that EVs are expensive and hence, the shift would be a no go; while 67.1% felt that EVs have a bright and green future in India.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUERIES ABOUT EVs

The most frequently asked query about EVs is about its safety and it is important to understand that all EV batteries go through rigorous testing procedures at NABL certified labs. ARAI and ICAT certify EV and Chargers. Thus, it is absolutely safe to drive an EV. If you are worried about the long run, it is safe to say that it is economically beneficial and is low maintenance. Initial purchasing cost is high, but then the running and maintenance cost is lower than regular cars which compensate for the initial high cost. Finally, if charging is your query then currently available EVs across vehicle segments (2-wheeler, 3-wheeler, 4-wheeler) can be charged from 0%-80% in around 1 – 5 hours from Slow/Moderate chargers while using Fast chargers, EVs can be charged in less than 1 hour. Fast chargers are mainly used to charge

electric 4-wheelers. If your EV has DC fast charging features then the charging can be really fast.

LOOKING AT THE WEST BENGAL ELECTRIC POLICY AND THE WAY FORWARD

The policy developed in place has a balanced demand and supply side when it comes to implementation. The demand for incentives for charging stations and developing e-mobility routes stand yet to be made. The supply side initiatives include employment incentives, special package for EV battery manufacturing, creation of EV parks and vendor ecosystem, energy generation and sales, research and development that includes innovative pilot projects. Development of E mobility routes is already on the way with intercity electrification green routes for the Kolkata – Asansol and Kolkata – Digha routes. Rapid chargers are meant to be installed at an average distance of 25km. The tariff rate for EVs is decided at 6 INR per Kwh. The cities of Kolkata, Asansol, Howrah, and Darjeeling are declared as Model EM Cities. Creating “Green Zones” within the city. New Town Kolkata will be the pilot city for all new incentives. Currently, pilot projects being explored are Clean Street Test Bed, Zero Emissions Vehicles Zones, Wireless EV Charging and Pop-up charging for cities. The Government of West Bengal has set a target of adopting 10 lakhs of EVs during the policy implementation phase, which would save up to 250 Million liters of fuel, thereby, resulting in a reduction of around 5 Lakh Kg of CO2 per day, which would lead to a reduction of around 18.25 Crore Kg of CO2 in a year.

Therefore, the way forward stands at spreading awareness on the financial and economic advantages of an EV to the public, increasing the number of charging stations to be able to go the distance and providing Subsidy for purchasing EVs as motivation for a sustainable future.

Facebook Live video part 1 – https://fb.watch/8qG0y-qGbF/

Facebook Live video part 2 – https://fb.watch/8qG34hyjc

Perception Study on Electrical Vehicle :- https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Avl13eWXtYnafSOK71vPh6rTOOn2iUe/view?usp=drivesdk

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