Electric vehicles will soon help India do away from fossil fuels

A three-wheeled vehicle or rickshaw might soon be a normal sight on the streets of India. At the Global Mobility Summit in New Delhi, PM Narendra Modi shared plans to change the car industry and energy consumption in the country.

The prime minister spoke about a new pan India policy to support more electric and non-oil-dependent vehicles and also hinted that it will see the light of day soon, reports Reuters.

Car companies have already started tapping into the Indian market. Toyota has been working on bringing electric vehicles to the Indian market in the coming years. Recently, Suzuki also announced 50 electric vehicles to test in the country.

If India chooses to adopt electric incentive and credit programs to move vehicles away from fossil fuels, it could pave way for an electric vehicle market like its neighbor China.
Mahindra Electric is one of the companies making an effort to burst on to country's EV scene. The company showcased its three-wheeled Treo as a low-cost, rechargeable urban vehicle.

Previously, Uber announced a collaboration with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, part of the $19 billion Mahindra Group, to explore the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) on the Uber platform in several cities across India.

To begin with, the companies will deploy hundreds of electric vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad. Mahindra's electric vehicles on the Uber platform will include the e2oPlus hatch and the eVerito sedan. As part of this collaboration, both the companies will also explore deployment of Mahindra electric vehicles to other cities.

Through this collaboration, driver partners on the Uber app can avail of a package which will include Mahindra electric vehicles at competitive prices, attractive financing and insurance premiums as well as comprehensive maintenance packages from Mahindra and its associates.

According to a Bloomberg report, a total of 200 electric vehicles were sold in the Indian market in 2017. The number minuscule when compared to an estimated 5,79,000 electric vehicles sold in China in 2017. If the new strategy comes to fruition, we will soon see a boom in EV scene of the Indian market, making more drivers move away from fossil fuels.