Electric vehicle adoption in India has been on a rapid rise for a couple of years now. The evidence for this was provided recently by a written reply submitted by the Road transport ministry in Lok Sabha that mentioned the total number of registered electric vehicles in the country to be around 4 lakh. Another testimony now comes by the three-wheelers running on the Indian roads. For the first time ever, the sales number of electric three-wheelers has surpassed that of the conventional fuel ones. 

According to the recent figures shared in a report by the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), the primary lobby for electric vehicles in India, the sale of electric three-wheelers in the country grew by 21 percent during 2018-19. In specific numbers, a total of 630,000 of such vehicles were sold in the country in the mentioned duration. The figure stood at 520,000 during 2017-18.

For the first time ever, this puts the sales of electric three-wheelers above that of petrol, diesel or CNG run three-wheelers. The increase in sales of petrol, diesel and CNG powered three-wheelers during the same duration grew by 10.6%, counting to a total of 572,400 units. 

The preference of electric three-wheelers over the conventional ones can be accredited to the several benefits they come with. The primary one being the low operational cost of the three-wheelers. Over prolonged use, this equates to high savings for the operators. The environmental benefits are, of course, always present, with almost zero emissions through their running.

The trend has also been given a vote of confidence by the OEMs like Mahindra & Mahindra and Lohia Auto, who are now coming up with more and more electric three wheeler offerings for the Indian buyers. The vehicles on sale range across those based on lead acid batteries to the ones powered by the preferred lithium ion batteries. 

While the electric three wheelers cost a bit more than their counterparts initially, they manage to bring down the running cost to a lot less than Rs 1 per km. That is more than four times lower than those running on petrol for every km. 

With the advent of charging infrastructure across the major cities of the country, the operations of such vehicles have further been simplified. Multiple battery swapping stations have also come into play, that swap discharged batteries for freshly charged ones, thus reducing the time spent on charging an EV’s batteries. 

So as running an electric vehicle becomes more practical on the Indian roads, we can expect a similar rise in the sales of electric vehicles across all categories. The simple reason behind this would be the fact that such vehicles are much more efficient than the fossil fuel ones and with the rising air pollution levels in the country, they are very much the need of the hour.