Rethinking green transportation: Converting ICE vehicles into electric ones

As the world grapples with the urgent need to combat climate change and transition towards sustainable transportation, the spotlight shines brighter than ever on the transformative potential of Electric Vehicles (EVs). India aims to take this to a new height. Under the ambitious vision of the Government of India, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recently announced plans to eliminate over 36 crore petrol and diesel vehicles in the country, heralding a green economy revolution. This is an ambitious goal and it has left even the staunchest advocates of green energy transition in awe of the sheer magnitude of the task and the transformative impact it promises to deliver.

As countries set deadlines to phase out Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles, the imminent surge in EV demand will present challenges in production and infrastructure. Ramping up manufacturing capacities, sourcing sustainable materials, and establishing robust supply chains to meet the burgeoning demand for EVs, while ensuring quality and affordability, is not going to be an ordinary challenge.

More from Opinion

Why Trump’s tariffs on India are a colossal mistake Apache induction and Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Striking the right balance in defence modernisation

However, amidst this transition, a bigger challenge that arises is: what will be the fate of the existing ICE vehicles? Scrapping millions of ICE vehicles will lead to substantial waste generation. It will be a universe of energy for disposal or recycling, exacerbating environmental degradation and contributing to landfills and pollution. If this is not managed properly, it will for sure lead to a major disaster.

The need

A balanced approach to the electrification of the transport sector is imperative. Converting existing ICE vehicles to EVs by replacing their combustion engines and associated components with electric motors and batteries presents a promising solution to prolong their lifespan sustainably.

Impact Shorts

View All

Why Trump’s tariffs on India are a colossal mistake

Putin-Trump talks: Can a fragile trust lead to a Ukraine ceasefire?

This conversion approach serves two primary goals. Firstly, it can curtail emissions from existing ICE vehicles in a cost-effective manner. Secondly, conversion can reduce substantial waste by repurposing existing infrastructure and components.

Conversion benefits

It presents a compelling economic proposition for existing vehicle owners to transition to EV at a reduced capital expenditure. Converting an existing ICE vehicle to electric power typically costs less than 50% of the price of buying a new EV. As the price of batteries and motors continue to decline, this cost is expected to become even more competitive in the future. The ability to go electric without incurring the huge financial burden associated with purchasing a brand-new vehicle and enjoy the lower operating cost is an attractive incentive for individuals and businesses looking to transition to electric mobility and reduce their carbon footprint.

Conversion also mitigates the environmental impact of traditional vehicle disposal aligning well with the broader objective of migrating to sustainable transportation. Scrapping older vehicles results in considerable metal, plastic, and fabric waste with huge energy requirements for disposing or recycling.

More to gain

The benefits of conversions extend beyond individuals and environmental sustainability.

By leveraging existing structure and components such as chassis and body, electric vehicle conversion minimizes the need for companies to invest into new and costly manufacturing technologies, processes and materials. Likewise, for countries it opens new avenues for revitalizing economies, reducing cost and dependency on imports, and generating employment opportunities, including at the grassroots level.

Opportunities for India and Nepal

With the right strategy, many of the millions of motor workshops in India can easily become hubs for electric vehicle conversion creating new employment, manufacturing, and entrepreneurship opportunities. Through appropriate training and skills development programmes to equip individuals with the skills needed in conversion, thousands of mechanics, technicians, and engineers can easily be employed. Though at a different scale, Nepal’s case is equally strong for electric vehicle conversion as this will help in creating a solid base for increased domestic hydroelectricity uses. This will help Nepal’s economy with saving resources on importing petroleum products and giving much needed demand push to the clean energy made in the country. In fact, with electric vehicle conversion, by exporting 10,000 mw (as agreed between two countries) to India, Nepal will be in an advantageous position too. As a business proposition, this is workable too and the industry captains from both the countries are responding to this positively too.

With the required capabilities, resources and demand, India is naturally the home for executing this transformational idea where Nepal can be a reliable ally as a source destination of relatively clean energy (hydroelectricity). With the ability to cater such a massive need for electrification of vehicles locally, it is bound to catalyse the production of EV components domestically, stimulating newer manufacturing industries, reducing reliance on imports, and fostering the development of domestic supply chains.

Reality check and beyond

As per Niti Aayog, “The availability of fossil fuels is limited, and their use is destroying our planet. Toxic emissions from petrol and diesel vehicles lead to long-term, adverse effects on public health. The emissions impact of electric vehicles is much lower than petrol or diesel vehicles. From an efficiency perspective, electric vehicles can convert around 60% of the electrical energy from the grid to power the wheels, but petrol or diesel cars can only convert 17%-21% of the energy stored in the fuel to the wheels. That is a waste of around 80%. Fully electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, but even when electricity production is taken into account, petrol or diesel vehicles emit almost 3 times more carbon dioxide than the average EV. To reduce the impact of charging electric vehicles, India is ambitious to achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by the year 2030. Therefore, electric vehicles are the way forward for Indian transport, and we must switch to them now.”

As a matter of fact, to realise the full potential for EVs for contributing to cut vehicle emissions need integration of electrical vehicles in power systems, decarbonisation of electricity generation, deployment of recharging infrastructure and manufacturing of sustainable batteries.

Here, it is worthwhile to mention a finding of International Energy Agency (IEA), “Over the last decade a variety of support policies for electric vehicles (EVs) were instituted in key markets which helped stimulate a major expansion of electric car models. But the challenge remains enormous. Reaching a trajectory consistent with the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario will require putting 230 million EVs on the world’s roads by 2030. For EVs to unleash their full potential to combat climate change, the 2020s will need to be the decade of mass adoption of electric light-duty vehicles. In addition, specific policy support and model expansion for the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle segments will be crucial to mitigate emissions and make progress toward climate goals.”

The IEA also observed that India’s efforts to control pollutant emissions from vehicles moved into high gear in April 2020 when it imposed Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) standards, (which are largely aligned with Euro 6 standards), on new sales of motorcycles, light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles. The jump directly from BS-IV to BS-VI forces manufacturers to make significant changes to vehicle designs in a short period. Investment by some Indian OEMs focus on ICE models meeting BS-VI standards, thereby delaying investment in BEV deployment. These OEMs have indicated that they are facing losses due to slumps in auto sales from reduced demand during the pandemic.

Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME II) scheme is regarded India’s key national policy relevant for EVs. Reportedly, it allocated $1.4 billion over three years from 2019 for 1.6 million hybrid and electric vehicles (including two/three-wheelers, buses and cars) and includes measures to promote domestic manufacturing of EVs and their parts. However, as per IEA’s study, more than halfway to the April 2022 end-date only 3% of the allocated funds have been used for a total of just 30,000 vehicles. There is a glaring scope of a significant acceleration. The momentum is gaining the ground in states and among the urban governments as well, among the notable examples is the Government of Delhi’s EV policy (August 2020). The policy targets 25% electrification of vehicle sales in 2024 and 50% of all new buses to be battery electric.

While converting an existing ICE vehicle (gasoline/diesel automobile) to an electric vehicle is a bright idea, its economics needs to factor in as the conversion procedure has its expense. To work under the existing structural framework, retrofitting an old petrol or diesel vehicle with an EV kit requires the change of ICE as well as the related systems. The conversion process is not that simple and it needs proper engineering skills and resources. To make this affordable and popularly usable, there is certainly a need for an incentive package from the government. At skill and financing fronts, the collaborative approach between the government and industry should support the uses of electrical vehicles.

To summarise, conversion not only extends the lifespan of existing vehicles but also offers a cost-effective solution for vehicle owners to transition to clean energy transportation reducing the financial burden associated with the transition. This sustainable approach to emissions reduction and waste minimisation aligns well with the global imperative to combat climate change. Through electric vehicle conversion, nations including India can not only navigate the transition to clean energy transportation efficiently but also create new opportunities by leveraging existing resources and fostering local industries, EV conversion generates new avenues for job creation and economic growth, particularly at the grassroots level.

Atul K Thakur is policy professional, columnist and author (most recently of ‘Kathmandu Chronicle: Reclaiming India-Nepal Relations’; Penguin Random House India). Deepak Rauniar is an energy expert and the CEO of Oorja World Inc, USA. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.