Topic of the Day - National E-Mobility Programme

UPSC Exam Preparation: Topic of the Day – National E-Mobility Programme

Government schemes are an important part of the UPSC syllabus. Every year, many questions are asked from this field in the IAS exam prelims and mains. In this article, you can read about the National E-Mobility Programme for the civil services exam.

The National E-Mobility programme was launched by the Ministry of Power. The programme aims at providing impetus to the entire ecosystem of e-mobility inclusive of service providers, fleet operators, charging infrastructure companies, vehicle manufacturers etc.  The focus of the government is to create policy framework and charging infrastructure to ensure that 30% of the vehicles on road are electric vehicles, by 2030.

The article will be very helpful for candidates who are aspiring to preparation for UPSC 2021.

National E-Mobility Programme UPSC

What is the role of EESL in the National E-Mobility Programme?

• Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) – a joint venture under the Ministry of power, working towards mainstreaming energy efficiency, will implement the programme.
• In order to get the economies of scale, EESL would aggregate the demand through bulk procurement of electric vehicles. These electric vehicles would replace the existing fleet of diesel and petrol vehicles.
• In the previous year, EESL had procured 10000 electric vehicles. Tenders would be issued to procure 10000 more electric vehicles in the current year.

National E-Mobility Programme Significance

It is expected that with 20000 electric vehicles on road, India would reduce its petrol consumption by five core litres, resulting in a consequent reduction of of about 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual carbon di oxide (CO₂) emission.

• The move would help in achieving autonomy from the expensive petroleum imports.
• Adoption of Electric Vehicles would promote the indigenous manufacture and production of e-vehicles, creating a market for ancillary industries, which would give a fillip to employment generation and the Make in India programme.

It is however necessary for the government to frame a policy for electric vehicle charging infrastructure to consider charging of e-vehicles as a service. A dedicated ministry for the automobile sector in the lines of aviation ministry would prove fruitful, as it employs 7% of the population and contributes 49% of India’s manufacturing sector GDP.

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