Electric cars may take over Indian roads by 2020

Even as Indians take to the road like never before, consumers could well be buying their last petrol or diesel car, according to a US-based expert. Using the country’s quick adaptation of smartphones as a model, Tony Seba, lecturer of Entrepreneurship, Disruption and Clean Energy at Stanford University, says electric vehicles could bring about a similar massive transportation disruption in India as early as 2020.

What’s more, he predicts that internal combustion vehicles which run on petrol and diesel could be wiped out globally in as little as 8-10 years. Seba’s warning comes as passenger vehicles in India in financial year 2016-17 grew at 9.24 per cent, the fastest rate of growth in six years, largely on the backs of utility vehicles, most of which run on diesel, which is much cheaper than petrol.

“Remember at the time of Smartphones India was the country which was the quickest to adopt the smartphone culture. In India the transport disruption can happen sooner,” Seba told WION in an exclusive interview.

The benefits, he points out, will be enormous, both in terms of financial savings as well as air pollution levels.

Seba estimates India stands to save as much as 6000 dollars a year per family as …read more