EVs could slash 33 lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions in Bengaluru in 7 years

Annual emissions of 33 lakh tonnes can be cut down in the Bengaluru metropolitan region if electric vehicles make up for an average 32 per cent of the vehicles on the road, a study by CSTEP has said.

In their study, titled 'Impact of EV on vehicular emissions', researchers at the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) calculated the drop in greenhouse gas emissions when EVs grow at the weighted compound annual growth (CAGR) rate of 56 per cent till 2030.

Since the data from the transport department was limited to the number of registrations, they adopted a formula to exclude the number of vehicles retiring for various reasons and found the fleet size on the road will grow by 5 per cent of the fleet size of the base year (2021).

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There were 75,000 EVs in Bengaluru in 2021. The study projects that the EV fleet will grow at a weighted average CAGR of 56 per cent during 2021-2030. The two-wheelers will see the biggest growth with 20 lakh e-bikes, followed by 1.4 lakh four-wheelers and 1.3 lakh three-wheelers.

As a result, even though the number of vehicles on the road will increase from 57 lakh to 89 lakh, the carbon emissions will increase from 1.11 crore to 1.38 crore tonnes. The moderate increase is "directly attributed to the 23.4 lakh EVs which will not have any emissions".

"This is equivalent to taking 4.85 million (48.5 lakh) conventional two-wheelers off the roads in Bengaluru," the study by Saad Khan, Spurthi Ravuri and Thirumalai N C said.

The reduction in the emission of polluting gases has been computed based on class-wise penetration of EVs. With penetration in the four-wheeler category remaining low, researchers project four-wheelers to be the largest contributors to pollution with 65 per cent emissions.

The researchers also considered the upstream emissions of EVs and stressed on the need to increase solar energy to make the transition clean. They recommended rooftop solar as the "most practical" ways of procuring renewable energy to offset all the electricity needed by EVs in 2030.