The pump prices in Delhi hit a new high this week, and across India’s sprawling cities, families are rethinking their relationship with the family car. It is not a sudden conversion to environmentalism, but a pragmatic shift: petrol now costs what a month’s groceries once did. The result is a quiet revolution in two-wheelers and three-wheelers, and a surprising uptick in electric vehicle sales that has caught the attention of British manufacturers.
For years, India’s love affair with the automobile was defined by the humble scooter and the auto-rickshaw. Now, the same vehicles are going electric. The Bajaj Chetak, once an icon of middle-class mobility, is reborn as an electric scooter. Ola Electric’s factory in Tamil Nadu is churning out scooters faster than it can deliver them. The shift is not yet a deluge, but it is a surge: EV sales in India doubled last year, albeit from a small base. For British companies like Arrival and the London Electric Vehicle Company, this is a tantalising prospect. Their electric taxis and vans, designed for the narrow streets of London, might find a ready market in Mumbai or Bangalore.
But the real story is not about tariffs or trade balances. It is about the daily calculus of the Indian household. Take Ravi Sharma, a delivery rider in Bangalore. He used to spend 300 rupees a day on petrol for his bike. Switching to an electric scooter cut that to 30 rupees. ‘It is not about the planet,’ he says over chai. ‘It is about my pocket.’ The same logic applies to the autorickshaw driver who converts his vehicle for a few thousand rupees, or the family that buys a Tata Nexon EV for the school run. The ‘human cost’ of fuel is finally changing behaviour.
This cultural shift is not without friction. India’s charging infrastructure is still patchy, and range anxiety is real. The government’s subsidies help, but they are not a cure-all. The price of electricity itself is rising too. Yet the momentum is undeniable. For British manufacturers, the opportunity is not just to export vehicles, but to learn from India’s experience. India is leapfrogging the petrol era, much as it skipped landlines to go straight to mobile phones. The streets of Delhi and London, though different, are starting to share the same silent hum of electric motors.
The social psychology of this transition is fascinating. The car was once a status symbol in India. Now, with rising costs, the electric vehicle is becoming a badge of prudence. For those who can afford the upfront cost, the long-term savings are irresistible. For those who cannot, the shared electric auto-rickshaw offers a cheap, clean alternative. It is a class dynamic in flux: the rich are electrifying their fleets, while the poor are being left behind by rising prices and inadequate public transport. The chasm between scooter and SUV remains, but one electric scooter at a time, it is narrowing.
