Bengaluru: After 2025, no petrol two-wheeler should be sold in India and it is possible to make this transition to sustainability in four years, according to Ola Chairman and Group Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal.
To make India the global leader in electrification, he said the entire Indian industry should come together towards this ambition instead of saying it will take 10 to 20 years.
Ola launched its first electric scooter here on Sunday.
Stating that electrification of vehicles is “an absolute urgency”, Aggarwal lamented that “the industry says it will take 10-20 years. Why so long? Why can’t we do it by 2025?”
Stating that it can be done, he said, “It requires will power, investment, it requires technology; it requires leadership and we believe everyone should take the lead.”
Stressing that everyone should do it together and not Ola alone, he said, “After 2025, no petrol two-wheeler should sell in the country. And it is possible, we can make this transition in four years. We have to reject petrol and make a transition to sustainability.”
He further said, “We have to build in India and make the country a global leader in electrification…and I believe the entire Indian industry should come together towards this ambition…there are a lot of naysayers but we need to make it happen and that is the spirit we work with.”
Highlighting the benefits of such a transition, he said, “There will be more jobs if India becomes a global EV leader and we should accelerate our journey in that direction.”
Anyone involved in the gasoline ecosystem can easily be retained into the EV ecosystem, he said when asked about what would happen to the jobs associated with the conventional two-wheeler industry.
Asserting that climate change is real and so is the need to reverse it, Aggarwal said, “80 per cent of the vehicles sold in India today are two-wheelers and despite that only 12 per cent of India owns a two-wheeler. These vehicles consume 12,000 crore litres of fuel every year and are responsible for 40 per cent of air pollution.”
He further said, “Clearly, this penetration is going to grow exponentially in the coming years and we simply cannot allow that to happen. So moving to EVs is no longer optional, it’s crucial.”
However, a shift like this requires innovation and manufacturing at a global scale and quality, Aggarwal said adding the ‘Ola Futurefactory’ is a move towards that.