Green Mobility

The on-road vehicle stock in Bengaluru is expected to grow by 1.5 times, with the total vehicular population projected to increase from 5.7M to 8.9M by 2030. Of note, the city’s electric vehicle (EV) fleet is projected to grow from 75,000 to 2.3M, with the most significant increase in the number of two wheelers, followed by three and four wheelers.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a direct cause of human-induced climate change. India accounted for 2.9 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2019. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 10% or 290 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Road transport, mainly comprising heavy vehicles (buses and trucks) and to some extent personal vehicles (two wheelers [2Ws] and four wheelers [4Ws]), is the leading contributor to these emissions.

In 2019, the Government of India launched the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles (FAME II) scheme to bring electric vehicles (EVs) at par with internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in terms of affordability. This was primarily aimed at helping India achieve its climate commitments and EV30@30 goals.

Recent studies show that 67% of public transport commuters in India shifted to private vehicle ownership after the initial Covid-19 crisis (during 2021-22). Around 96% of these new vehicles were internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) and will be in use for at least a decade, creating around 18.8 MtCO2 emissions annually.
Our analysis infers that if all of the newly added vehicles in India (during 2021-22) were electric vehicles (EVs), around 9.5 MtCO2 of emissions could have been avoided annually.

Traffic and transportation surveys are essential to gain a clearer perspective on issues such as gridlock at major junctions and lower-than-forecasted metro ridership. In fact, these surveys are important to identify the root causes and develop traffic mitigation measures.