The government recently announced that gas cars will be phased out by 2030.

Indian auto manufacturers and international oil exporters have been aflutter since India’s government announced plans to make all its cars electric by 2030. “By [that year], not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country,” Power Minister Piyush Goyal said at a Confederation of Indian Industry session last month.

India’s need for oil has surged as its economy has grown. It’s now the world’s third-largest oil importer, paying $150 billion annually for the resource. A sizable chunk fuels passenger vehicles acquired by the country’s growing middle class—and the number of cars is only going to increase in coming years. Switching to electric vehicles (EVs) would save the country $60 billion in energy by 2030, according to a report published last week by NITI Aayog, India’s most influential government think tank.

The change would also decrease carbon emissions by 37 percent by 2030—a welcome development for a country with a severe urban pollution problem. In 2014, the World Health Organization determined that out of the 20 global cities with the most air pollution, 13 are in India. The country’s leaders have made attempts to improve air quality. In the first two weeks of January 2016, for instance, New Delhi’s government mandated that men could only drive their cars on odd- or even-numbered days, depending on the last digit in their license plate number. While such interventions can help, switching to EVs would have a much greater impact.1

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© Rocky Mountain Institute

REPORT
India Leaps Ahead: Transformative Mobility Solutions for All1

India’s “leapfrog ” opportunity to create a shared, electric, and connected mobility future promises to provide Indians with clean, affordable, efficient, and reliable transportation options to support and enhance their daily lives.

Enabling factors set the stage for India to lead the world in advanced mobility services. These factors include India’s dynamic public- and private-sector leadership, entrepreneurial culture, ability to build infrastructure right the first time, and a unique confluence of information technology and manufacturing skills.

WHY THIS MATTERS

This transformation could sharply reduce fossil-fuel costs and import dependency, cut hazardous air and carbon emissions, fuel job creation and homegrown innovation, and support the growth of India’s economy. Initial estimates suggest that shifting to a shared, electric, and connected passenger mobility paradigm may avoid as much as 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide emissions between 2017 and 2030, and $60 billion in annual petrol/diesel costs in 2030. This bold vision for India’s mobility future and a set of actionable solutions designed to help achieve it were developed by a group of 75 government and industry experts during a charrette co-convened by the Indian government’s premier think-tank, NITI Aayog, and RMI in February 2017 in New Delhi. Following the charrette, NITI Aayog and RMI engaged in a consultative process to formulate a change model designed to accelerate deployment and scale at a pace matched by India’s ambition. 

For a background document that helped set the stage for the charrette, click here. If you'd like to read the full report, please fill out the download form below.