EV demand on the rise: Could it mean the end of fuel stations

Electric vehicles currently account for 2 per cent of all new vehicle sales in India.

BHPian Vitruvius recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

With the recent upsurge in interest in electric mobility, I was left wondering what will become of my dirty diesel if I don't want to upgrade yet?

Came across this article in Sunday's edition of ET Auto

A study by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water has concluded that India's passenger vehicle ownership will increase 2.9 times between 2016 and 2030. Also, India had around 65000 fuel retail outlets in FY19, and they've been growing at an annual growth rate of 5% because of the rising oil demand.

This year itself, till August 2021, EVs accounted for nearly 2 per cent of all new vehicle sales.

If India manages to reach a 30% EV sales share by 2030, the oil demand would still increase nearly twofold - to cater to the concurrent rise in passenger vehicles, and two-wheelers. This would translate to the setting up 60,000 new fuel retail outlets.

The think tank has also proposed ways to increase EV adoption. The article makes for an interesting read.

I'm sure nobody was mistaken that our oil pumps were shut down, but I was of the opinion that we were on a downward trend with respect to fossil fuels and transport but that's clearly not so.

Long story short, I'd still be making my trips to the pump for many years to come!! That's if I do make it alive till the end of the ICE era

P.S: No electric cars were harmed during the writing of this article.

Source

Here's what BHPian Mafia had to say on the matter:

It is still early days and most projections are guesses at best.

Does the adoption of EV's really reduce pollution considering India currently produces much of its electricity using coal?

Hydrogen-cell fuel is still on the horizon. EV's adoption may be limited only to passenger vehicles initially. Large commercial transport vehicles are going to be in circulation for longer.

The governments will only stop the productions of IC passenger vehicles in the next 10 to 20 years. the renewal of the last diesel passenger vehicles will be another 10 years after that. If you time it well, you can drive diesel for 20 years. I really doubt you would want to do that though as the EV adoption increases, IC car makers will not update their cars, and towards the last 5 to 7 years of sales, no updates to cars will be made, parts will be tougher to source, akin to when a car company shuts down.

Here's what BHPian phamilyman had to say on the matter:

The core thing is - petrol pumps are a REAL estate business because no honest person can ever BUY land or lease it at market prices

It is deep-pocketed landed folks who run such businesses - for many of them it is black money being converted into white even if the business doesn't make a roaring profit.

They won't grow, sure - but not going away in this decade for sure while the current vehicle fleet lives out its years. By 2035, sure things could get really dire if you consider how much things have changed since 2017

Here's what BHPian jkrishnakj had to say on the matter:

I don't see the end of the fuel stations for the next decade/decade and a half at least. We may see fewer new ones, but the older ones are here to stay.

I recently remember a thread here about BPCL making 1000's of their pumps to include EV charging stations. If BPCL were to really pull this off, it's only natural that the others follow suit and we will hopefully have a lot of EV stations around us and on the highways. The whole 'Range anxiety' will forever be gone with such a model.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.