Easy for India to switch to electric vehicles: NITI CEO Amitabh Kant

Low per capita car ownership in India will be advantageous for the country for mass adoption of EVs (electric vehicles), a senior government official said on Thursday.

According to NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, for mass scale EV adoption and to make India a base for EV production challenges such as ingeniousness battery production and creation of charging infrastructure need to be met.

At present, India has a low per capita car ownership of 20 vehicles per 1,000 citizens in comparison to 800 vehicles per 1,000 citizens in the US and 85 per 1,000 citizens in China.

"Low per capita car ownership which uses internal combustion engine gives India unique opportunity to pursue a different growth model in this sector," Kant said at the 57 SIAM Annual Convention 2017 in New Delhi.

"While other countries will struggle to replace their large (internal combustion engines powered) vehicle fleets with EVs... India would not be required to do so."