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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the Indian electric vehicle market would create 5 crore jobs and the market is likely to reach Rs 20 lakh crore by 2030. He also blamed nearly half of the air pollution to the transportation sector.
According to Gadkari, who was speaking at the ‘8th Catalyst Conference on Sustainability of Electric Vehicle Industry – Evexpo 2024’, “The potential of the Indian electric vehicle market is Rs 20 lakh crore by 2030, which will create five million jobs across the electric vehicle ecosystem.” The electric vehicle financing market is also expected to rise to Rs 4 lakh crore by 2030.
Gadkari stated that fossil fuels are creating many problems in the country. “We import fossil fuels worth Rs 22 crore, which is a huge economic challenge. And this import of fossil fuels is creating a lot of problems in our country,” Gadkari said.
The government is focusing on green energy as 44 per cent of India’s energy basket is solar energy. He said top priority is given to the development of hydropower, then solar energy and green energy, particularly from biomass.
The minister highlighted the shortage of electric buses. He said India needs 1 lakh electric buses, but the capacity is 50,000 buses. He urged auto companies to expand their factories without compromising on quality and said this is an opportune time to do so.
When he took over as transport minister in 2014, the size of India’s automobile sector was Rs 7 lakh crore, and today it is Rs 22 lakh crore. “Our number is third in the world. We have just surpassed Japan,” he said. India’s automobile sector is the third largest in the world, after the United States (Rs 78 lakh crore) and China (Rs 47 lakh crore).
He said India needs to rise to the top spot in the next five years. “The future of the industry is good. We have to compete against China in this sector. For that we need good technology and quality,” he stated.
The minister stated that manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is important and companies like Tata, Adani and Maruti are in the process of manufacturing batteries. India has 16,000 electric vehicle charging stations and 2,800 are in the pipeline.
