Delhi has about 56 lakhs registered two-wheelers; and 33% of pollutants are added by the two-wheelers alone, said Sohinder Gill, Director-Corporate Affairs, SMEV.
He stated that, “India is facing multiple issues on vehicular air pollution on account of large quantity of new vehicles added every day, insignificant scrapping of old vehicles, a sizeable share of diesel cars and overloaded as well as poorly maintained commercial vehicles. Together with the dust and fog, this vehicular pollution creates a deadly concoction of toxic gases on the city roads, accentuated by the slow moving traffic and the temperature inversion due to the on- setting winters.”
Gill in his statement noted that, “We at SMEV have been promoting green mobility solutions in terms of 100% electrification of two-wheelers in India as a first step to reduce carbon emissions due to vehicular pollution. One of easiest and fastest adoption of EVs can be in the field of deliveries. SMEV is nudging the government and persuading e-commerce and logistic companies in India to replace their polluting fleets with electric vehicles. Hopefully, we’ll see a success in this area soon.”
As per the Delhi Statistical handbook (2014), there is an average increase of 6 lakh two-wheelers per year since 2010. Also, Delhi vehicular growth has outpaced the growth of road length. Expressing his concern, Gill, said, “In the last decade, road length has increased only three times, whereas the number of vehicles have grown 20 times, converting the roads from seamless commuting space into pollution corridors. As two-wheelers account for more than 75% percent of the total vehicles on roads, therefore any strategy to control air pollution must be centered around them."
Transporting people and goods, demands huge quantity of fuel and hence results in significant emissions of greenhouse gases. In India, for example, vehicles in major cities are estimated to account for 70% of carbon monoxide, 50% of hydrocarbons and 30% of suspended particulate matter of the total pollution load. In order to reduce these numbers there is a need to change mobility habits and shift towards efficient sources of energy.
78% of the vehicular traffic in India comprises of two wheelers and electrification of these two wheelers could be a foremost step in reducing the impact of vehicular pollution in India. It is estimated that even if 2 lakh petrol two wheelers are replaced with electric two wheelers, the CO2 and other harmful gases will reduce by 3.6 lacs tons in next 3 years.