Page 30 - Edelweiss India Conference 2022 FLIPBOOK

THE NEW EDGE

Fuel cell developments in India

India’s MNRE has been supporting various hydrogen projects in academic institutions,
research organisations, and industry for development. As of February 2020, the MNRE had
partnered NTPC, a state-owned energy conglomerate, to propose the launch of a pilot fuel
cell bus project.

PLI scheme of INR260bn: To spur production of EVs and FCEVs

Besides, a hydrogen fuel cell bus was launched in 2019 in India by Tata Motors in
collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Indian Oil (IOCL). In

build the required hydrogen infrastructure to support the vehicles near Delhi.

In February 2020, India’s NTPC invited global expressions of interest for ten hydrogen fuel
cell buses and cars in Leh and Delhi. These projects augur hydrogen production through
Total cost of ownership renewable energy sources and utilising it for use in FCVs for public transportation.
of FCEVs could match Currently, diesel generators are widely used for decentralised power generation throughout
or even be lower than
that of ICE-based and health risks. If India were to replace the generators with fuel cells, emissions can be cut
vehicles, and EVs

FCEVs could disrupt ICEV and even BEVs

In the long run, the rollout of fuel cell EVs (FCEVs) could not only potentially
replace ICE-based automobiles, but may also disrupt currently nascent
adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in India. We believe the total cost of
ownership (TCO) of FCEVs could match or even be lower than an ICE car and
EVs.

FCEVs’ rising threat to BEV adoption

Generally, car buyers consider TCO as one of the several criteria. It is quite evident that EVs
have started gaining prominence across the world. We thus reckon widespread disruption
in ICE automobile industry given the declining initial cost with technological advancement
in the long run.

Furthermore, we foresee FCEVs emerging as a rising threat to adoption of BEVs. While
FCEVs are currently not competitive even compared with BEVs (battery-operated EVs)
primarily due to high cost and low utilisation of infrastructure.

28 Edelweiss Securities Limited