Asia Pacific is emerging as the fast growing market for Electric Vehicles if the growth forecast period for the same for the region is to be believed. The region is home to fastest-growing economies like India and China, and the governments of these countries have recognised the growth potential of electric-vehicle (EV) market trends and hence taken initiatives to manufacturing EV in domestic markets. Asia is home to 93 of the world’s most polluted cities in the world hence giving much reasons for the governments to boost the growth of EVs.
With grave concerns of air quality and escalating urbanisation and the need of cleaner mobility solutions EV is emerging as a big solution. Asia pacific EV market size was valued at USD 222.7 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to register a growth of around 32.5 % between 2023 to 2032 driven by government initiative and policies to reduce green house gas emission and dependence on fossil fuels.
As per a 2022 data transportation sector in the Asian region accounts for around 14% of the overall emission. Thus the countries in the region are putting a thrust on switching to EVs and trying to reduce cost and affordability.
India ranks Third in the World in EV running costs
India has seen a significant rise in the number of Electronic vehicles in the last few years. Although the Electronic vehicles (EVs) are more expensive in India as compared to conventional ones, they offer lower running costs. Home grown automakers are leading the EV revolution. According to the latest study conducted by Australia-based aggregator-Compare the Market, India is one of the cheapest countries to charge an EV. The leading country in the list is Argentina and is followed by Malaysia.
The recent research was based on the cost of charging the latest-gen Hyundai Kona EV across 50 countries across the world. It is available in both petrol and electric variants. The factors taken into consideration are cost of electricity and petrol running cost in the selected countries. The countries with highest rates for charging an EV are Denmark, Italy and Germany. The study has revealed that fully charging an EV is costlier in the European region against Asian countries. The research shows that it costs Rs 231 to fully charge the Kona EV in India. Argentina that ranked first at Rs 113 and Malaysia was second at Rs 157. The other countries with affordable prices are UAE, China, Vietnam and Turkey.
The Hyundai Kona used for the study is powered by 39.2kWh battery and offers 136hp of output. In India, the Kona electric is offered in the first generation base variant only. We do not get a petrol variant of the Kona in India.
EV charging costs as compared to petrol costs
According to a research it costs Rs 76 worth of electricity per 100 km of driving in an EV compared to Rs 647 worth of petrol in India. It means we can save 88.26 percent of the cost of the fuel bill by driving an EV over a petrol vehicle in India. On an average, EVs costs Rs 267 to charge for every 100km driven, while a petrol cost Rs 763 for the same.
The usage of EVs in India depends on factors like the cost of the vehicle, availability of charging stations, battery life, environment impact etc. India currently is limited to few charging stations which is seen as a challenge for the EVs. According to a report by BloombergNEF, India only has 1800 public charging stations till march 2020 as compared to 68,000 in China and 78,000 in US. The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) and National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) are some of the initiatives to promote development of charging infrastructure by the Indian govt.
