SOURCE : E MOBILITY PLUS | PUBLISHED : 26 FEB 2025
Indian Electric Vehicle Fleet operator’s challenges to scale nationwide are now narrowed to 5 major obstacles 1. High Upfront Costs, 2. Range Anxiety, 4. Charging Infrastructure within cities and on highways, 5. Battery Life and Replacement, 6. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) uncertainty. While initial challenges like Operational Logistics, Energy Management and Cost Control, Training and Adaptation, Sustainability and Environmental Considerations were consistently reduced by policy interventions, facilitation of government regulations and incentives in past decade and few highly successful growth records are visible in participants of technical trials.
In an effort to give national impetus for adoption of electric fleet deployments; aimed to offer adequate EVs available for booking on apps, government intended to extend maximum ‘Ease of Doing Business’ to fleet operators. National Highways for EV (NHEV) an emerging tech pilot in electric mobility offer those advanced and high capex solutions was lately adopted by Govt of India, after 3 successful technical trials. It unturned all cornerstones and bottleneck concerns of EV fleet operators and the investors when it successfully established advanced V2X mechanisms to offer breakdown backup within 30 minutes for EVs, 30% lesser priced EVs for fleets, and 30% Capex utilisations of Chargers with 3 Years breakeven tenure for EVSE infra investors.
Let’s critically evaluate these 4 cutting-edge solutions here for public dissemination and consumption:
- RSA for EV fleets breakdown E-Highway
Game-changing equation using V2X providing automated and advanced Road Side Assistance (RSA) to EVs in maximum 30 min on NHEV highways; while Diesel cars will continue waiting for RSA estimated to reach them in 2 hours. Breakdown of an EV used to be every intercity ‘Fleet Operators’ nightmare now successfully resolved by NHEV on Indian E- Highways.
- Seamless charging on E-Highways & City Hubs
No cash, wallet, QR Code, or UPI / NPI App needed now for fleet operators and drivers to charge their vehicle at Charging Stations being made at regular interval of 50 km on E-Highways. They can fast-charge their electric vehicle anywhere at any station anytime and their operator’s subscription account will be charged in monthly cycles.
- EVs available on Diesel vehicle price for fleets
NHEV offer Annuity-Based payment structure directed by MoRTH (Aug 2020) where vehicle and the battery are not tied together anymore in terms of ownership and registration. Now rather than requiring fleet operators to pay the full upfront cost of the EV & battery, operators can buy EVs on equivalent rates of ‘Diesel Vehicle’ with monthly, quarterly and annual battery subscription plans for operating on NHEV Highways, like MG and other participants has started operating. This structure spreads the cost of the battery over a long period, significantly reducing the upfront price of the EV and with this annuity model called AHEM, fleet operators can easily budget their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) on Predictable Costs, knowing exactly what their monthly expenses will be for battery usage. This predictable, lower monthly cost makes the vehicle more affordable.
It also protects heavy-duty fleet and freight operators from scrapping their vehicle after 2-3 years or consumption of first battery cycle package. They could pay in monthly instalments for an advanced battery to be intel with user data, manufactured and retrofitted by their current batter service provider without full payment burden at the time of replacement and battery recycling concerns. No Battery Maintenance Costs, Battery Lifecycle Management, Extended Battery Life, Reduced Depreciation, Guaranteed Performance and Warranty are added advantages of NHEV model along with Battery Upgrades and Technological advancements of the same vehicle.
- Infrastructure Investment in PPP Mode
Fleet operator’s biggest capital nightmare is added investment on procurement of land, CapEx on charger, getting timely electricity connection and EV charging infra uptime management. Which is very efficiently taken off by NHEV from the operator’s balance sheet to an optimally monetised asset on highways getting popular like petrol pumps of next generation after the model revealed by Nitin Gadkari; offering land, parking, utilities, renewable and thermal power, facilities, maintenance bundled together with room for installing more chargers in future as fleet increases. These assets are designed, procured, build and operated by NHEV like a viable, bankable and profitable asset and allocated to investors in PPP mode on annuity under Annuity Hybrid E-Mobility (AHEM) model. Currently backed by HDFC Bank with a credit outlay of Rs.3672 Cr for construction.
NHEV ensure 30% utilization of charging infra and additional facilities with a 36-40 month (4 year) breakeven period by binding multiple fleet operators operating on the route in a minimum offtake guarantee agreement to provide the seamless charging, RSA backup, reduced priced EVs and lowest renewable energy powered tariff. The Ministry of Finance announced in the Union Budget 2025-26 that all states are required to submit a 3-year pipeline of infrastructure projects that are ready for implementation in a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) mode, projects like NHEV ticking all boxes to be implemented by 2027. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also proposed an outlay of ₹1.5 trillion for 50-year interest-free loans to states for capital expenditure on infrastructure in PPP mode. This initiative is aimed at ensuring Indian players are prepared to compete with foreign investors, especially with the ongoing paradigm shifts in the industry. Until last year, investments in EV infrastructure were not generating returns on investment (ROI), and EV fleet operators were struggling despite lower per kilometer running costs.
Additionally, the Ministry of Heavy Industry (MHI) is exploring the inclusion of setting EV charging infrastructure also to be considered as foreign investments under its manufacturing incentive scheme to attract global automakers. The Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India (SPMEPCI), launched last year, aims to make India a manufacturing hub by encouraging foreign automakers to set up production units. The scheme mandates a minimum investment of $500 million (₹4,150 crore) and requires carmakers to achieve 25% localization within three years and 50% within five years.
Keeping accumulative national ambition and requirement of EV Fleet Operators, Indian version of E-highway development and prototyping was tasked to NHEV demonstrate credible growth patterns of viability, bankability, and profitability of EV infra, required to achieve desired ‘Asset Monetization’ levels on highways. NHEV has successfully attracted both Domestic and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). It could be a solid move to diversify FDI beyond manufacturing units into charging infrastructure to accelerated adoption EV fleets in India.
– By Abhijeet Sinha, Program Director – Ease of Doing Business, Project Director- NHEV
SOURCE : E MOBILITY PLUS | PUBLISHED : 26 FEB 2025
