Page 25 - Insurance Times Octoberr 2022

and state and governments need to work together for an EVs a mandatory form of transportation mode since it is a
integrated policy creating a conducive ecosystem for India's great enabler to achieve the 2030 target. Additionally with
electric mobility vision. the mandate a fee bate policy could be introduced to
increase the demand. Consisting increasing cost & other
A combination of enabling policy measures, infrastructure constraints faced on fossil fuels used in vehicles/
development, total cost of ownership (TCO) parity, and a transportation means the Government should immediately
market buzz-promise to fast-track the shift to electric, are introduce a phase wise or complete ban on ICE sales in the
needed for the dawn of a new era for the automotive ultimate.
industry. Only a few state EV policies provide guidelines and
incentives on battery recycling. A coherent recycling policy Additionally scrappage policy for ICE vehicles needs to be
is also the need of the hour. integrated with properly mandated EV policies in order to
encourage people to scrap their old ICE vehicles and create
Public Charging Infrastructure: incentives for them to buy EVs instead. If India meets the
goals, it can create a medium-to high impact social gains.
Across the world, electricity distribution companies and oil
For example, the improvement of air quality in the cities,
and gas players are developing solutions and entering into
reduction of fossil fuel usage, and reduction in GHG
partnerships in the EV charging infrastructure space. While
emissions - are the dire needs of the current era.
private chargers form a major share in the availability of
charging infrastructure, public fast charging is also picking
Readiness of car insurers in India for
up.
insuring Electric Vehicles:
In order to enable faster adoption of EVs, the government
There is uniformity in the entire process of insurance and
has issued guidelines and standards for public charging
stipulated coverages available in Motor Department of
infrastructure wherein it has phased out plans for the roll-
General Insurance parlance irrespective of type of vehicles.
out of public charging infrastructure. Based on the proposals
Obviously Electric car insurance always will be abiding by
received, the union government has sanctioned 2,636
these. Electric car insurance is a type of motor insurance
(public) charging stations in 62 cities across 24 states/UTs
that is there to protect electric cars from a number of
to be installed by 19 public entities.
potential damages and losses, such as those that might
happen in the case of accidents, natural calamities, or fire/
Out of these, 1,633 are expected to be fast charging and
nine other perils as basic cover as stipulated in motor
1,003 slow charging stations. With this, around 20,000
insurances coverages.
charging points are expected to be installed across selected
cities.
Electric cars are becoming the dire need as discussed above
in details, as they are cost-effective and better for the
Immediate future requirement to
environment. And in the same way that regular cars need
achieve 2030 target: petrol or diesel as fuel, these cars are charged with
Even when the state and central government have certain
policies in place, it is unlikely that India will reach its
aspiration goal of 30% market share of EVs by 2030. This is
mostly because of three things in particular -
1) Government policies need more inclusiveness of the
both demand and supply chains not just dependent on
demand-side policies;
2) the high upfront cost/price of EVs, and,
3) the lack of charging infrastructure both in private and
public domains.

Both state and center need to work on strategies to make
The Insurance Times, October 2022 25