Sign In
Learn bits
Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

27/11/23 07:00 AM IST

Fleet electrification to tackle urban pollution

In News
  • The air quality index (AQI) in many Indian cities has entered the red zone several days this year.
  • Millions of people have to face serious health hazards due to recurring increases in air pollution.
Increase in truck fleet
  • About 9 lakh new trucks are added to Indian roads every year to an already running fleet of 70 lakh trucks.
  • India carries over 2 trillion tonne kilometres freight on trucks, annually.
  • These trucks consume over one-fourth of Indian oil imports and contribute to over 90% of road transport CO2 emissions.
  • The rate of increase of truck fleet is expected to keep increasing in a growing network of roads in an emerging economy.
  • If all these new trucks are powered by diesel-fired internal combustion engines vehicles, as is the case today, our cities will face a greater onslaught of PM2.5 pollution.
  • India has already electrified rail freight transportation, but that caters to only about 20% of the freight carried in the country.
  • On roads, India’s electric vehicle penetration rate has crossed the 6% mark, but electric trucks remain a challenge due to upfront costs and charging infrastructure constraints.
  • It is commendable that the government is aggressively electrifying the bus fleet, and sets electrification targets for bus aggregators. However, the focus must extend to diesel trucks and dust mitigation — significant PM sources requiring immediate attention.
  • This is important both from an energy security perspective and sustainability perspective.
Electric Vehicles
  • The recent demand for 7,750 e-trucks in India by 2030, if it materialises, will result in the country saving over 800 billion litres of diesel till 2050.
  • However, the Indian truck fleet is likely to reach a figure of 1.7 crore in 2050.
  • Hence, there is a need to push top gear on the pace of transition to e-trucks. Public funding alone cannot meet the transformational scale required.
  • A pipeline of bankable projects, effectively structured, which can attract private and institutional capital at a ratio of at least six rupees for every rupee of public money is the need of the hour.
  • The upfront cost of a mid-range electric truck in India is around ₹1.5 crore compared to about ₹40 lakh for a diesel truck.
  • This and the cost of charging logistics remain major hurdles in the transition to e-trucks in the country. 
Green freight corridors
  • Declaring some of the expressways and national highways as green freight corridors will have a demonstration effect in the country.
  • Accelerating feasibility studies, demand aggregation, supplier readiness, and a prudent risk allocation strategy are required to create green freight corridors in India.
  • Such corridors can first evolve in small stretches of 500 kilometres on routes with heavy truck movement.
  • Innovative financial instruments, incentivisation of charging infrastructure, facilitation of entrepreneurial efforts, and a conducive regulatory environment in the country can bring forth the much-needed breakthrough for truck electrification in India.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

17 Sep

Reasons Behind the heavy rain in Uttarakhand, Himachal

'Dehradun and several other districts in Uttarakhand have experienced very heavy rainfall over the past few days, triggering landslides in multiple areas and causing rivers to swel

Read More

08 Sep

Rajasthan’s coaching centre Bill

'The Rajasthan Coaching Centres (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2025, is a significant piece of legislation passed by the Rajasthan Assembly to regulate and oversee the state's burg

Read More

28 Aug

IADT-1

'Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully carried out its first Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT-1), a crucial milestone in the preparation for the countr

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps