Plug-n- Play Part- 1: India’s Roadmap to 100% Electric Mobility by 2030

[ Series of 5 Cross Post by Author 

Plug-n- Play Part- 1: India’s Roadmap to 100% Electric Mobility by 2030

Plug-n-Play Part -2: Which comes first “Electric Vehicle" or "Charging Infra”

Plug-n-Play  Part-3: Ever Proliferating xEVs Charging Standards

Plug-n-Play Part - 4: How Fast I need to Charge my xEV & DC Fast Charging Global Battle

Plug-n-Play Series Part – 5: Does India really need battery swapping for jump-starting xEV Market

]

Series _1_Understanding India’s Automotive Ecosystem from Regulatory Perspective

India soon will embark on ambitious programme of switching all mobility on Battery Power, 100% electric mobility by 2030. Recently, we all have been hearing a lot about Electric Vehicles and everyone wants to be part of this upcoming industry right from Metal tycoon JSW, Conventional power generation companies viz NTPC, Oil companies like ONGC followed by MNCs appointing teams for promoting their charging infra solutions, battery suppliers starting promoting battery swapping models and Battery as a Service (BaaS) Solutions and last but not the least few promising start-ups viz Hero Motocorp Invested, Bengaluru based “Ather Energy” followed by Tork Motors in Pune, Twenty Two Motors in Gurgaon, Ampere in Chennai and so on.

To effectively drive e-mobility mission, Govt must have to stich every part closely and needs a strong galvanization of the overall automotive ecosystem for Electric Mobility which is relatively very new area for a country like us and obviously with the given grid infrastructure stability, the First Step is to have uniform safety & reliability standards in the country for Electric Mobility as a whole mainly from “Charging Infrastructure”, Testing Standards & Facilities for the same.

Understanding the Overview of Regulatory Framework of Indian Automotive Industry

Current “Indian Automotive Industry Ecosystem” looks somewhat as depicted in the below figure. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRT&H) is the NODAL agency for regulating Automotive Sector in India, however the rules and regulations related to driving license, traffic control etc are governed by “Motor Vehicle Act 1988” and “Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989” (CMVR) The erstwhile Ministry of Surface Transport (MoST)under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRT&H) has constituted an “Automotive Industry Standards” committee (AISC) dated Sep 15, 1997 under CMVR which prepares Indian Automotive Standards & technical specifications which are primarily based on “ United Nations Economic Commission of Europe” (UNECE)

There are various key stakeholders in AISC, the list of the same is given hereunder.

• Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Department of Roads Transport & Highways) ( DoRT&H(MoRT&H))
• Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises (Department of Heavy Industries) (MoHI&PE (DHI))
• Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (Office of the Development Commissioner MSME)
• The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI Pune)
• Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT)
• Vehicle Research & Development Establishment (VRDE)
• Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures (SIAM)
• Tractor Manufacturer Association (TMA)
• Automotive Component Manufactures Association (ACMA)
• Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)

Department of Road Transport & Highways further constituted CMVR – “Technical Standing Committee” The standards prepared by AISC are approved by CMVR–TSC(Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989- Technical Standard Committee) and are published by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI Pune) being the secretariat office of the AIS Committee. In line with First Step, recently ARAI has published both “DRFAT Standards for Conductive AC (Rev -3) & DC (Rev-1) Charging” on 17th Aug 2016 and 22nd September 2016 respectively, which were also uploaded on ARAI website for stakeholder & expert comments.

EVSE DC conductive Charging System Draft Version -1 EVSE DC Standard

EVSE AC conductive Charging System Draft Revision -3 EVSE AC Revision -3

Additional Notes

Motor Vehicle Act 1988 is an Act of Parliament of India, Which regulates all road transport vehicle related aspects, it came in force in 1st July 1989.  It has replaced the earlier Act of 1939 which in turn replaced first version of the act in 1914. In order to exercise the provision of the MVA 1989 Act Govt of India has also made “Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989”