Electric vehicles are being hailed as the future of mobility. But are we truly prepared to embrace them? I’ve seen a similar wave of optimism in the early ’90s when India began transitioning to CNG as a cleaner fuel alternative. The intentions were well-placed, but the implementation lacked structure, leading to outcomes that fell short of expectations.
As we now accelerate toward electric mobility with similar enthusiasm, it’s important to ask—have we learned from past mistakes, or are we once again charging ahead without a solid foundation?
Let me narrate the story of CNG adoption in India.
CNG Adoption in India
During 1991-93, I was studying in Udaipur for my 10+2. While travelling from Udaipur to Lucknow (my hometown then) I used to pass through New Delhi, 2-3 times every year.
Those days New Delhi was going through an Air Pollution crisis. Most of the time, the entire city was covered under a thick layer of smog and it was difficult to even breathe if one came from a cleaner city like Udaipur. This used to get worse during the winters.
At that time, this problem was attributed to vehicular pollution and efforts were being made at various levels to solve this.
Converting Petrol and Diesel vehicles into CNG was one such initiative. The primary target of this activity were Autorickshaws, Taxis, Buses and Trucks operating locally. Driven by a slew of court rulings and coercions, the whole conversion happened in a relatively quick time and the situation improved considerably on the pollution front in 2-3 years.
The overall implementation though was shoddy and unorganised. Due to stiff timelines, instead of doing a proper implementation, a lot of vehicles were rather converted into CNG overnight using substandard kits available in the grey market.
There was little planning in the CNG transportation and distribution network. There used to be serpentine queues of vehicles waiting for refuelling at the few available filling stations which often used to run dry leaving the waiting people in the lurch.
To summarise, the early adopters of CNG technology had a harrowing time. In my opinion, this severely impacted the further adoption of CNG technology. To this date, even after 30 years, CNG has still not become the Automotive Fuel of choice and has never penetrated beyond the segments where it has been made mandatory. So much that over three decades and we hardly see it beyond Delhi NCR and a few other metros.
The CNG refuelling infrastructure has only marginally improved, and there are still queues on the filling stations most of the time. On top of it, there have hardly been any innovations on the technology side to make CNG vehicles more fuel-efficient or acceptable to the market.
Electric Vehicles Adoption Is On Similar Lines
A similar scenario is playing out these days in the Electric Vehicles’ segment.
While the government is pushing Electric as an alternate and clean fuel (which is still being debated), the Auto OEMs and buyers are still sceptical.
If we talk about pricing, there is hardly any vehicle available at the entry level. Most of the Electric cars are either mid-range or premium and the story is not much different in 2-wheelers where the range starts upwards of Rupees 50,000 even for unknown brands.
Pricing though is not the focus of this article as I feel the correct price points for various Electric Vehicles are yet to be established and there would be significant corrections across the board once the initial euphoria subsides and we are in the actual supply-demand scenario.
Electric Vehicle Charging Infra
I am more concerned about the dismal growth of the infrastructure needed to support these vehicles, especially the charging infrastructure. There are hardly any initiatives or projects on the ground to demonstrate this. All theories, ideas, plans and proposals are still on the drawing boards.
If I take the example of my housing society, we have 71 parking slots for cars and around 30 for 2-wheelers. To date, we don’t have a single charging point.
Most of the Indian cities do not have designated parking lots. And most of the officially marked parking lots don’t even have arrangements for basic lighting or have powerlines in the proximity. So if one wishes to fix a charging point in their parking lot, it shall be a cumbersome and costly affair.
This is further compounded by the fact that most of the housing societies nowadays have concrete flooring in the common areas which, needs to be broken to lay electric cables thus further complicating the projects and jacking up costs.
It is naïve to say that someone would spend lakhs of rupees to buy an Electric Vehicle and then completely rely on some external agency or infrastructure for charging, keeping in mind the amount of time required for a recharge.
This factor itself makes the Electric Vehicles a nonstarter and if this problem is not solved quickly, Electric Vehicles would be reduced to being a niche product just like CNG Vehicles.
Electric Vehicles Are Not ‘Zero Emission’ Vehicles
Zero Emissions is touted as the key benefit for an Electric Vehicles but I don’t think that the Government is pushing Electric Vehicles to take care of Vehicular Pollution. They are more interested in saving their petrodollars.
If they are concerned about Pollution, they should rather be working on improving the traffic jams, pushing stringent compliance to emission norms and stricter monitoring of the emission levels of the vehicles plying on the road, instead of promoting a particular technology.
A lot of industry leaders have already started doubting if Electric is the right breakthrough technology to replace IC engines at this moment in India. While a few are recommending hybrids as a better alternative, a few others say that Autonomous (Self-driving) Cars would be the actual breakthrough.
Electric Vehicles Have Failed Once
It is also worth remembering that Electric Vehicles came into existence before the IC Engine Vehicles stormed into the scene and took over the market.
Electric Vehicles were already available in the 19th century itself but couldn’t be successful because of:
- High ownership cost
- Low speed
- Low range (due to lack of charging points/ power infra)
Sounds familiar? Well, we humans have the strange habit of repeating our mistakes!
Will this be another example? We will have to wait and see.
Conclusion
India stands at a pivotal crossroads, between ambition and execution, hype and ground reality. While electric vehicles promise a cleaner future, their success hinges not on marketing or subsidies, but on infrastructure, accessibility, and practicality. We cannot afford to romanticise the idea while ignoring the groundwork required to make it viable.
If we don’t learn from our CNG experience, marked by poor planning and limited foresight, we risk consigning EVs to the same fate: niche adoption, frustrated users, and missed opportunities. Clean technology needs more than good intentions. It needs real, actionable groundwork.
Until then, the Electric Vehicles’ dream may remain just that—a dream.
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PS: Copilot and ChatGPT have been used to create parts of this post.
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