The “e-mobility R&D Roadmap for India” to achieve net-zero targets was launched by Professor Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the government on Tuesday.
The R&D roadmap has been prepared after detailed horizon scanning of the global automotive sector and identifying future cutting-edge technological requirements.
It categorises research projects into four important areas: Energy Storage Cells, EV Aggregates, Materials and Recycling, Charging and Refueling, and provides clear pathways to attain global leadership by being Atmanirbhar in the next five years.
In his remarks, Prof. Sood highlighted that India aims to achieve a 45% reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and energy independence by 2047 to reach net-zero commitment by 2070. A significant part of this vision will require the wider adoption of electric vehicles, manufacturing of indigenous energy storage systems, and generation of renewable energy to feed charging infrastructures.
He said that presently the e-mobility value chain heavily depends on imports. Prof. Sood emphasized on reducing our dependence on imports within the e-mobility value chain and the requirement of strengthening domestic R&D capabilities in the automotive sector.
Dr. Preeti Banzal, Adviser, Office of PSA presented a brief overview of the efforts toward creating a strong R&D ecosystem in the automotive sector. She informed that the Office of PSA, in August 2022, had constituted a ‘Consultative Group on eMobility (CGeM)’, which is a panel of experts from government, academia, and industries to devise technical roadmaps, studies, documents for accelerating migration of prevalent fossil fuel-based transportation sector towards electric mobility in India.