The Great Smog of India by Siddharth Singh

Author:Siddharth Singh [Singh, Siddharth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789353053154
Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited
Published: 2018-09-29T00:00:00+00:00

The 100 per cent EV target raised significant questions about technology, financing and other issues. A conversation I had with a few energy experts revealed the uphill nature of this exercise. It would require not only manufacturing interest and enhanced consumer demand, but also the approval of ministers, bureaucrats and the government that would be in power in 2030. Policy continuity could not be guaranteed. Additionally, the battery swap technology had already failed in the US, Israel and Japan.

Ultimately, in February 2018, the government stated that it would no longer pursue this aggressive target through a stated policy. Instead, it would continue to push for clean mobility without a hard target.54 Unsurprisingly, the Indian automotive industry breathed a sigh of relief. The government, however, will continue to provide incentives to automobile manufacturers and consumers alike, and the Indian automotive industry itself envisages that around 30 per cent of cars sold by 2030 could be electric.55

In spite of EVs providing benefits such as zero tailpipe emissions and reduced dependence on oil, they invite a fair share of criticism. And this is not without reason: the argument goes that EVs are not clean. They merely shift the pollution from the tailpipe to wherever the electricity is being generated. This technology of the future is taking us from burning relatively clean petrol to burning dirty coal, goes the refrain.

This criticism holds merit, at least for the time being. India’s electrical grid is largely powered by coal, and there are substantial losses in power transmission. EVs would therefore lead to greater emissions at points of power production. However, this picture is incomplete. For one, shifting emissions from densely populated cities to thinly populated areas outside cities is in itself a desirable health policy goal. This does create environmental justice concerns since those who would be at the receiving end of the pollution are not those urban residents who are using it. However, the same can be claimed even in the case of ICE vehicles, the owners of which are less likely to suffer from the emissions than passers-by who may not own personal vehicles.

Further, a few studies have claimed that EVs lead to fewer emissions even when coal is a significant part of the power grid. A study by the Vrije Universiteit Brussel claimed that in Poland, EVs are 25 per cent cleaner than diesel ones. When the study was conducted, 50 per cent of the electricity generated in Poland was from coal-fired power plants. Similarly, in Germany, an EV emits 45 per cent less GHGs than a diesel vehicle, claimed the study, even though 39 per cent of the power supplied was from coal and another 7 per cent from natural gas.56 This study considered ‘life cycle emission’, which includes emissions from the fuel supply chain, energy burning within the vehicle and the manufacturing and maintenance of the car itself. The study, while conducted by a university, was financed by Transport & Environment, an activist organization.

Another study by the International Energy Agency (IEA)

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