EV Expo 2016: A Lost Opportunity For Indian Auto Manufacturers

The Indian Auto Expo is always announced with much pomp and celebration with newspaper advertisements, hoardings and TV/radio spots. Au contraire, the EV Expo (Electrical Vehicles Expo) at the Pragati Maidan in New Delhi only came to light when someone casually mentioned something about it and we got a press release from a popular but smaller commercial vehicle manufacturer about a scheduled launch. Nonetheless, as is mostly the case, a little research later we found ourselves at the venue hoping to see the slowly but surely growing industry in all its glory - after all, we have seen more electric and Hybrid four-wheelers and two-wheelers launched in India in 2016 than ever before.

The Expo largely consisted of e-rickshaw sellers

But rather unexpectedly, not only was the show a complete anticlimax from what we expected but the shocking absence of popular electric vehicle manufacturers was worrying. What we saw instead were all smaller scale manufacturers, assemblers and sellers of e-rickshaws from India (but mainly China) lining up their mostly garishly decorated vehicles. While there were a few displays that did have interesting concepts and applications for the electric rickshaw platforms, like Lohia Motors and their electric three-wheeler small garbage mover for example, most other products looked almost exactly the same with a set of different wheels, headlights and of course badging.

With all its successes in the Formula E arena, this could have been the perfect place for Mahindra Electric to showcase not only their race car but also the newly launched Mahindra e2o plus and the Mahindra e-Verito that was launched earlier this year. Even automakers dabbling in hybrid technology like Honda, Toyota and Volvo could have participated just to educate and spread awareness about their products and technology to the public. The same goes for two wheeler manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp who make a range of electric two-wheelers and Torq motorcycles whose electric bike has been very critically acclaimed earlier this year.

The EV Expo saw Chinese companies showcasing their work

Even on the technology front, we expected to see future lithium-ion battery packs, quick charge solutions and supercapacitors but all that seemed to be on display from the component side of things were the same old lead-acid batteries that we use in all our cars, some alloy wheels for the e-rickshaws, some really garish LED lighting solution and a bunch of chrome trim.

Yes, we know that the e-Rickshaw has brought about quite a change in cheap mobility in cities especially in North India and we know that the fact that these electric vehicles are all zero emissions does play an important part in pollution levels but the EV Expo which is now in its third year could have been a far larger and grander affair. When we asked a few manufacturers why the expo was dominated with products like these, all of them pointed to the fact that the e-Rickshaw industry was almost unregulated apart from getting initial licences and the fact that government interest in anything electric is next to zero.

While there some smaller Indian manufacturers, major Indian players gave it a miss

A few days ago, R. C. Bhargawa, Chairman or Maruti Suzuki India Limited said that Maruti as a company was not interested in any form of electric mobility because of a lack of infrastructure for electric vehicles. He also stated that the government needs to do a lot more to promote the use electric vehicles by making the infrastructure (like charging points) that can support them. With a similar sentiment echoing through the Indian automotive industry, it is no wonder that the EV Expo was disappointing even to someone who strongly likes the idea of electric mobility.