Discussion on transition to electric vehicles in Karnataka and India

Content from the Brookings Institution India Center is now archived. After seven years of an impactful partnership, as of September 11, 2020, Brookings India is now the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, an independent public policy institution based in India.

Read our PlanetPolicy Blog and discussion summary

Electric vehicles have ambitious targets and lots of potential, but most policy ambitions have been manufacturing or target oriented, instead of ecosystem oriented. Brookings India organised an expert roundtable bringing together leaders from government, industry, utilities, academia and civil society.

To accelerate and transition, a key focus for discussions was: What are the key unknowns and missing pieces in the current policy discourse on electric vehicles where research and policy need action, going beyond just targets and ambitions?

Brookings India also briefly presented its ongoing study on EVs that highlights the divergence between the load and energy needs from EVs and its implications for the gird.

Below are some broad questions that were discussed:

How do we control the grid impact of EVs within the theoretical extremes of optimally spread out charging to all EVs simultaneously plugged in?
What are local infrastructural preparedness plans, especially for public and private charging?
How would states handle fiscal issues as tax revenues decline away from petroleum products to electricity?
How do we measure, monetise and incentivise co-benefits, which range from pollution to stabilising the grid (using “surplus power”)?
What are the nimble, adaptive approaches that allow learning and iteration instead of big-bang, lock-in, or other options leading to corner solutions?

The discussion was moderated by Rahul Tongia, Fellow, Brookings India.