The surging sales growth of electric vehicles, especially in the two- and three-wheeler categories that have seen several launches lately, may slow as safety norms are tightened following four recent fires involving such bikes.

This is second consecutive year of Rs 1,000 crore investment lined up by the two-wheeler major from South India, a part of which will go into doubling its EV production capacity to 25,000 units a month by the end of this year and further increasing it to 50,000 units a month.

If the existing vehicle design does not permit conforming to this standard, an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS), crudely similar to a loudspeaker, will need to be installed by the vehicle manufacturer.

In an aluminium-air battery, energy is released when aluminium reacts with oxygen in ambient air to produce aluminium hydroxide. Due to its light weight and high energy density, such a battery becomes ideal for electric vehicles, the company said in a press statement.

According to the report, the construction of these charging stations has started at various places including bus depots at Rajghat, Chattarpur, Dwarka Sector-22, Seemapuri, Dilshad Garden, Kair, Dhichau Kalan, Rani Khera, Kanjhawala, Bawana Sector-1 and Sector-5 and Rewla Khanpur.

Even if people in these tier II and III centres are preferring electric two-wheelers, it will still take some time before EVs can actually make a significant impact on the number of vehicles compared to the IC (internal combustion) engine manufactured vehicles, said Shriram City Union Finance MD and CEO YS Chakravarti.

The electrification of mobility will impact energy security, import bill, pollution level, climate change and therefore, even national health and sustenance. The action in EVs will happen at the intersection of mobility, energy, and real estate, he added.

According to the CAQM report, the targets have been set up in order to achieve zero tailpipe emissions with battery-operated vehicles. States need to set and accomplish these targets in terms of percentage of the new vehicle sales to be achieved by the end of the plan period while targeting total e-vehicles in particular categories.

The solution, where empty batteries can be exchanged for charged-up ones, is still in nascent stages in China, the world’s largest EV market, where it is anchored in strong government policy.

Currently its projects are located at Noida, Greater Noida, Raj Nagar Extension, Ghaziabad and Lucknow. Recently, the company has taken up the development of a stuck project under Project Management Consultancy model in Greater Noida.

"Delhi government has launched a #WhatsApp chatbot for #ElectricVehicles. Find your nearest charging station, know more about electric mobility, models etc. Send a 'hello' at 98103 36008 and let's collectively @SwitchDelhi," said a tweet by Delhi Transport Commissioner Ashish Kundra.

Notably, as per March 25, this year, the number of electric vehicles in the country are 10,76,420 and as per the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a total of 1,742 Public Charging Stations (PCS) are operational in the country. Nine cities -- Surat, Pune, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Chennai, account for approximately 940 stations.

Retrofitting of vehicles is also among the solutions offered to tackle the polluting internal combustion engine or ICE vehicles currently plying on Indian roads. It is like this: the Government wants to junk old vehicles. Retrofitting companies ask: why not retrofit them? We talk to companies engaged in retrofitting and find out why this route can be more viable for Indian consumers, and why a legislation surrounding it is needed.

The investment in this project is planned to be made over a period of 16 months, and it hopes to contribute towards the emergence of clean energy, while at the same time, creating employment in the state.

“We have surveyed the housing societies where RWAs are managing the operations and everyone is facing the same issue. Most of them wants to install it at the visitors parking but residents object to that. A clarity will help as there is a lot of demand for EV charging stations,” said Pradeep Rahi, the residents welfare association president of Ramprastha Society.

The State Government will help the sector in areas like battery swapping, Bommai said after launching 152 EV charging stations and 'EV Campaign 2022' organised by Bengaluru's power distribution utility, Bescom.

Key to the program, first mooted in the federal budget in February, is the government’s desire to standardize the size of batteries to make them compatible with all vehicles using swap stations, the 40-page document shows. While India won’t immediately introduce standardized batteries for swap stations as it would need “close coordination” among swapping-point operators, that will be the long-term goal, the document states.

The EV policy offers various financial incentives to EV manufacturers by giving incentives on fixed capital investment (FCI), net SGST, stamp duty, employment generation, etc, an official statement said. There is 100 per cent reimbursement of stamp duty along with exemption in electricity duty for a period of 20 years. The SGST reimbursement shall be 50 per cent of the applicable net SGST for a period of 10 years.

According to the report, at a certain point of time in future, there may be an appropriate ecosystem for enforcement of regulation toward electric mobility or other clean transport options.

CPOS is an industry body representing EV charging station companies. It claims to have 21 members with over 3000 EV charging points in place. On Monday, the members of the society also committed to install 4000-5000 EV chargers as a pilot project over 2000 locations in Central Delhi.