When it comes to electric vehicles (EV), India has seen massive growth in the last few years. But industry leaders still see opportunities in states such as Karnataka where work needs to be done at a faster pace to boost sales in the segment.
In December 2022, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said that over 18 lakh electric vehicles have been registered in the country, with Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Maharashtra emerging as the leading states in sales in the segment.
While Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are top states in terms of EV revolution in India with 30% of such vehicles on road, Karnataka, with its tech hub Bengaluru, is lagging behind.
Needless to say that Karnataka, specifically Bengaluru, is the house of several EV start-ups and electric scooter manufacturers like Ola Electric and Ather Energy. It is one of the first states in the country to come up with an EV policy focusing on ecosystem development. But as of now, it has not yet reached the bar for mass adoption to challenge Uttar Pradesh or Delhi.
In this case, Anant Badjatya, CEO of SUN Mobility, which partnered with Hero Electric and displayed electric mobility solutions at the Auto Expo 2023, told News18: “It’s ironic that Bengaluru, which is the home of so many tech companies, is not adopting the EVs the way it should. But the situation is changing there. For example, Yulu is a success and Sun Mobility is also present in Bengaluru.”
According to him, it is not that the state is not doing anything for the EV adoption, rather it is more about the other states working more rigorously to provide the ecosystem that their efforts have weakened states like Karnataka.
He said: “The Delhi government has worked very hard on the policy side, maybe because of the pollution issue in the capital to ensure the fast adoption pace. And because of such fine policies, we are seeing so many EVs on the road now.”
Karnataka is a “bit slow in terms of ensuring the EV policy, but I think it needs to be pushed forward as fast as possible”, he added.
However, while talking about Karnataka specifically, Uday Narang, Founder and Chairman of Omega Seiki Mobility, which exhibited EV products like MUSE and KRAZE, told News18 that the company has worked in rural and urban regions of the state including the major cities.
“We have talked about putting major operations in Karnataka and also thinking about building manufacturing plants in the state,” he added.
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