87% Indians would buy electric vehicles if that reduced pollution: survey

Transportation accounts for about 11 per cent of India's carbon emissions and is a major source of air pollution in several cities nationwide.

About 87 per cent of Indian drivers and vehicle owners would buy an electric vehicle (EV), if that helped reduce air pollution, according to a new survey.

Only 12 per cent would switch to EVs to avoid using petrol and diesel, according to the survey commissioned by Climate Trends, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit, which polled more than 2,000 Indian drivers, owners and those who planned to buy a car. In 2017, India sold about 900,000 EVs, 4 per cent of the volume of diesel and petrol vehicles sold.

Transportation accounts for about 11 per cent of India’s carbon emissions and is a major source for air pollution in several cities nationwide. As many as 14 of the world’s top 20 most-polluted cities are in India, according to a 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) report.

The findings of the Climate Trends survey were launched on September 6, 2018, a day before the start of a two-day long conference organised by NITI Aayog, the central government’s think-tank. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to launch a policy on ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles’ (FAME-II), much-anticipated policy for the Indian EV industry. The first phase, FAME-I, was released in 2015.

The launch, however, was postponed to rework the policy after the prime minister “indicated” a major change in the thrust of the policy, the Times Of India reported on September 7, 2018. The policy will focus on reducing the price of batteries in vehicles, deviating from its earlier focus on reducing the price of the entire vehicle by providing subsidies, said the report.

EV manufacturers and sellers were waiting for a single policy that laid out a roadmap for creating an EV ecosystem, including charging stations and manufacturing and buying incentives, IndiaSpend reported on March 5, 2018.

Most drivers, vehicle owners affected by poor air quality

About 76 per cent of drivers and owners surveyed said that they, their friends, family and neighbours, were suffering the effects of poor air quality, according to the survey.

The highest number of respondents who said they suffered from air pollution were from Delhi. About 91 per cent of those surveyed said that either their health or that of someone in the family or neighbourhood was affected by air pollution, said the survey...Read More

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