Deepak Rajagopal: Time to usher in the EV revolution

“The air quality in our cities is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Today, 14 out of the 15 most polluted cities in the world are in India. Left unchecked, we are staring not only at severe health costs but also losing highly skilled work force to migration abroad.

Transportation is an outsized contributor to this situation, if not the sole one. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are an integral part solution to this problem, which justifies strong public support for their adoption. However, despite generous tax subsidies, and other forms of support, adoption is not occurring at the pace and scale needed to have a meaningful impact on oil imports and urban air quality. Also, subsidies have proven unsustainable even for the wealthy countries (e.g. Norway). Nevertheless, there is reason for optimism. The basic point here is that policymakers should recognize some new realities, and tweak our policies to take full advantage of such facts.”