News Analysis India

Tag: Electric vehicles

  • EV fire incidents will be probed; industry bound to grow: Road Transport secretary Giridhar Aramane

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Amid multiple cases of electric two-wheelers catching fire, Road Transport and Highways Secretary Giridhar Aramane on Sunday said each and every incident will be probed and asserted that the Indian EV industry is bound to prosper and grow beyond ‘our imagination’.

    Aramane further said the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has achieved an overall asset monetisation value of about Rs 21,000 crore in FY22 as part of the Centre’s National Monetisation Pipeline. “Each and every incident (of electric vehicles catching fire) will be probed into,” he told PTI in an interview.

    Recently, there have been multiple incidents of electric vehicles (EVs) catching fire and resulting in deaths and severe injuries to people.

    Asked if the spate of high profile battery fires is undermining India’s bid to become a leader in EVs, Aramane said not necessarily, if the manufacturers quickly establish necessary functional safety protocols, quality control and quality assurance systems.”The Indian E V industry is bound to prosper and grow beyond our imagination,” he asserted.

    Aramane said an expert panel that has been formed to enquire into the matter has not submitted its report. “All the problems and the procurement, design, management, operations, manufacturing of the batteries and electric vehicles have to be examined,” he said, adding following that appropriate recommendations will be given.

    Recently, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is known for his frank views, had said the companies found negligent will be penalised and a recall of all defective vehicles will be ordered after the expert panel submits its report.

    The government had ordered a probe last month after an e-scooter launched by ride-hailing operator Ola’s electric mobility arm caught fire in Pune.

    The Centre for Fire Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) had been asked to probe the circumstances that led to the incident and also suggest remedial measures, according to the road transport ministry.

    The ministry had asked CFEES to share the findings along with its suggestions on measures to prevent such incidents. So far, three Pure EV, one Ola, two Okinawa, and 20 Jitendra EV scooters have caught fire.

    To a question on asset monetisation, Aramane said: “Last year (2021-22 fiscal), we did more than Rs 15,000 crore of asset monetisation, we also got around Rs 5,000 crore through securitisation of toll. So, overall around Rs 20,000-21,000 crore was real accrued to the ministry by asset monetisation.”

    In August 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Rs 6-lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) over four years to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors.

    Asked if he is still confident of completing projects under the Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana by 2022-23, the transport secretary said, “Because we started one year late, instead of 2017-18, we started in 2018-19, so it will go up to 2023-24.”

    The government’s flagship programme for national highways, Bharatmala Pariyojana (BMP) Phase-I, was initially proposed to be completed by 2022. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) had in 2017 given investment approval for Phase-I of Bharatmala Pariyojana, spanning a period of 5 years.

    Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase -I includes the development of about 24,800 kms of national highway network such as economic corridors, inter-corridor and feeder roads, national corridors efficiency improvements, border and international connectivity roads, coastal and port connectivity roads, expressways as well as 10,000 kms of roads under National Highways Development Project (NHDP).

    Asked about the ministry’s plan to connect 112 aspirational districts, he said these districts need development and thus need to be connected with the employment-generating centres and manufacturing hubs.

    “Several of them will be covered through the national highways which are getting developed under the Bharatmala Pariyojana and our national infrastructure pipeline. So, remaining also we will try to cover through the annual action plans of the ministry over the next 4-5 years,” Aramane said.

  • Government orders forensic probe in 4 fire in 2 wheelers; to take action after report, says Gadkari

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The government has taken very seriously the four incidents of fire in two-wheeler electric vehicles (EVs) in the past one week and will take appropriate action against the manufacturers after a forensic investigation, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari told Lok Sabha on Thursday.

    He also said that as on March 25, as many as 10,76,420 EVs were registered in the country and 1,742 public charging stations (PCS) were operational.

    “A total of four incidents of fire in two-wheeler EVs have been reported in the past one week and this is a very serious issue. We have ordered a forensic investigation into each of the individual events from experts of Centre for Fire Explosive, DRDO and IISc, Bengaluru,” he said during Question Hour.

    The minister said India’s standards for approval of EV and batteries are apt with the global standards and the government will take appropriate action after the exact technical reason behind the accidents is known.

    “We are waiting for the report from the expert committee. After receiving the report, we will find out exactly what is the reason behind that. On the basis of that report, we will take appropriate action against the manufacturer,” he said.

    However, he said, he felt that the apparent reason for these incidents was high temperature.

    “We are still waiting for the report of the expert committee. After we receive the report of the expert committee, we will take appropriate action. We will also take sufficient measures for the safety of the people,” he said.

    Replying another supplementary, Gadakari said the central government is fully committed to the Paris accord on environment and protection of ecology and environment.

    He said the government has proposes to provide 650 roadside amenities on national highways out of which, work on 40 of them have already started.

  • Work underway to set up EV charging stations at 22,000 of 70,000 petrol pumps in country: Government

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Work is underway to set up charging stations for electric vehicles at 22,000 of the 70,000 petrol pumps across the country, the government informed Rajya Sabha on Friday.

    Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said the first priority would be to set up such charging stations for electric vehicles at express highways, highways and populated cities.

    He also said the government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India)-II scheme has directed the ARAI in Pune, an institution working in the field of automobiles, to develop a prototype for fast charging of electric vehicles.

    The aim is to have it in the market by December 2022, Pandey said. He said work is underway on this project and he hopes that the prototype would be prepared by October or November of next year.

    “Our ministry along with the ministries of petroleum and power are jointly working towards implementation of FAME India. We are working towards setting up charging stations in 22,000 of the total 70,000 petrol pumps across the country and work is on in this regard,” the minister informed the House.

    “Our priority is to set up charging stations on express highways, highways and populated cities and later, this will be taken down to rural areas. But our priority right now is on these three fields,” he said.

    Pandey also informed the House that work is underway to produce lithium batteries in the country to make India self-sufficient and a production linked incentive scheme (PLI) scheme of Rs 18,100 crore has been evolved.

    “The RFP has been floated and there is a good response from the industry. We are moving fast towards making India self-sufficient,” he said.

    For waste disposal, he said a technical committee of the Ministry of Environment has been finalised which is working on the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2019 to find a solution to the problem of waste management and it will submit its report soon, the minister informed.

    In his written reply, Pandey also said, ” Phase-II of Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) is being implemented for a period of five years w.e.f.

    April 1, 2019, with a total budgetary support of Rs 10,000 crores. Under Phase-II of the FAME-India scheme, Rs 1000 cr is allocated for the development of charging infrastructure.” 

    “This ministry (power) has sanctioned 2,877 electric vehicle charging stations in 68 cities across 25 states/UTs and 1,576 charging stations across nine expressways and 16 highways under Phase II of FAME India Scheme,” Pandey said.

    According to the Ministry of Power’s guidelines, there must be at least one charging station at every 25 kms on both sides of a highway and also at least one charging station for long range and heavy duty EVs at every 100 kms on both sides of a highway. For the city at least one charging station will be set up in a grid of 3km by 3km, he also said.