New Delhi: India's electric vehicle (EV) market is on course to be worth Rs 20 lakh crore by the end of the decade and could generate five crore jobs along the way, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday. Speaking at a summit hosted by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, the road transport and highways minister put the current base at 57 lakh registered electric vehicles, translating to 7 percent market penetration.
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"India's electric vehicle(EV) market will be worth Rs 20 lakh crore by 2030. It will also create five crore jobs by 2030," he said.
Gadkari flagged a gap between what the market wants and what factories can deliver. Annual demand for electric buses in India runs to one lakh units, he said, but "we are able to manufacture only 50,000-60,000 EV buses annually."
On the two-wheeler side, he noted that Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp — the country's two biggest manufacturers — send more than 50 percent of their output abroad.
The government wants India's automobile industry at the top of the global table within five years, Gadkari said, and he was candid about the difficulty.
"Within five years, our target is to make India's automobile industry the number 1 in the world… it is difficult, but not impossible," he said.
He grounded the optimism in the country's trained workforce, and in a combination that has drawn every major global manufacturer to India: good build quality at lower cost.
Gadkari measured the progress against his own tenure. "When I took charge as transport minister, the size of the Indian automobile industry was Rs 14 lakh crore. The size of the Indian automobile industry is now Rs 22 lakh crore," he said.
India currently ranks third globally at Rs 23 lakh crore. The United States leads at Rs 78 lakh crore, with China second at Rs 47 lakh crore.
India spends Rs 22 lakh crore importing fossil fuels, Gadkari said, and that dependence carries a pollution cost. His answer runs through both infrastructure and fuel choice.
"We are making good highways...Good roads with alternatives, and bio-fuel is the future," he said.
Expressways and economic corridors have already brought India's logistics cost down from 16 percent to 10 percent, according to a recent study by IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore that Gadkari cited.
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The next milestone is lower still. "The government's aim is to bring down logistics cost to 8 percent, which will help India become more competitive," he said. Without that reduction, he added, competing in global markets would remain difficult.
