The Blue Circle, an exclusive leadership community, in association with Avendus Capital, Hero Electric successfully hosted EVConIndia – Electric Vehicles: Mapping the Indian Terrain and Charting the Course – India’s Premier Electric Vehicle (EV) Conference (Exclusively for Leaders) at The Leela Ambience, Gurugram on 9th October 2019.Avendus Capital is India’s leading investment banking firm and, Hero Electric is a leading manufacturer of Electric Vehicles. The conference was attended by 100+ CEOs & CXOs, Experts, Investors and Innovators came together to share their ideas and thoughts on EV technologies, energy generation solutions, battery technologies, charging infrastructure solutions, technical and resource challenges that EV manufacturers are currently facing.
The conference was addressed by eminent industry leaders and experts including Sunjoy Joshi, (Chairman, ORF), Pavan Choudary (Public Intellectual & MD Vygon India), Kavan Mukhtyar (Partner & Leader, PWC), Naveen Munjal (MD, Hero Electric), Vinit Bansal (Founder & MD, EV Motors India), Anil Srivastava (Principal Consultant and Mission Director – Mobility, Niti Aayog), Ayush Lohia (Chief Executive Officer, Lohia Auto), Akash Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Mobycy), Atul Arya (Head–Energy Systems Division, Panasonic India), Rajeev Chaba (President and Managing Director, MG Motor India), Sanjay Aggarwal (MD, Fortum), Vinay Piparsania (Director, Counterpoint), Ravindra Dayal (Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki), Sameer Pandita (Director, BEE, Ministry of Power), Koushik Bhattacharyya (Director and Head, Industrials, Investment Banking, Avendus Capital), Sohinder Singh Gill (Chief Executive Officer, Hero Electric India), Anant Nahata (Managing Director, Exicom Power Solutions), Vignesh Nandakumar (Partner, Lightstone Aspada), Rajesh Ramaiah (Partner, Premji Invest), Nitish Arora (Research & Policy Lead, Ola Electric), Kanv Garg (Director-Renewables & Electric Mobility, Ernst & Young), Anil Arora (Country Head, Clean Motion India), Awadhesh Kumar Jha (Vice President, Fortum), Piyush Gupta (Chief Executive Officer, Lithion Power), and Saurav Kumar (Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Euler Motors).
There were seven sessions in the entire conference which deliberated upon the relevant aspects of EV ecosystem. The conference also had a Start-up Accelerator program where seven startups participated and showcased their ideas.
Siddharth Anand, Founder and CEO, The Blue Circle said, “We are glad that EVConIndia has received tremendous response among participants and has achieved its objective to bring Industry Leaders, CEOs & CXOs, Subject Matter Experts, Investors, Innovators, Leading Start-ups, Top Government Officials & Policy Stakeholders all together to discuss, debate and analyse the growing possibilities and future of EV in India. The conference not only a well-considered dialogue but also advanced the agenda concretely forward where an leading incubator evaluated startups in this space to nurture further.”
In his opening remarks, Sunjoy Joshi, Chairman, Observer Research Foundation said, “It is always a pleasure be at a Blue Circle event and I have attended 2 earlier events by the Blue Circle and I have always been impressed by how the blue circle gets the top leaders to attend and engage, people who actually have to take the final decisions in their companies. It is hats off to the blue circle for creating and launching a platform like EVConIndia. Emission free vehicles like EVs are surely the writing on the wall.”
Speaking on the occasion, Pavan Choudary, Public Intellectual & MD Vygon India said, “Just like the light bulb, a powerful product like EV will bring in to being the infrastructure required for its adoption. The current weaknesses in EV technology should not be made reasons to stop progress”. He added, “Just as Banks are investing in Block Chain Technology which might disrupt them, entrenched players in the ICE markets should also put greater energy behind developing EVs. Citing the instance of how Dupont was co-opted in the discovery of alternatives to CFCs, and exhorting the policy makers for inclusive innovation, he said, “Those segments of the industry which are disrupted should be made beneficiaries of the new technology”. The EV is also a preventive Healthcare device and hospitals will participate in its development by providing their parkings as charging grounds”, he added.
While speaking in the first session: 2-Wheeler Mass Adoption, Naveen Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Electric said, “Inadequate awareness about electric vehicles is a bottleneck which should be overcome. Many questions like how will I charge? How will I use it? And the service network that comes along with it are questions to be answered. In the IC category 70% of the vehicles are financed but for EVs its only about 3%. We are trying to overcome them all and will make a proper ecosystem for Electric Vehicles.”
Outlining the issues related to mass adoption of EVs in India, Anil Srivastava, Principal Consultant and Mission Director – Mobility, Niti Aayog stated, “We have to realize that the mobility which was developed in the country through the ages and in the recent history for colonial exploitation, now that mobility has to switch over to economy for the people and EVs or more broadly speaking, low emission vehicles are the clear writing on the wall.”
During his remarks on the session: Cutting Edge 4 Wheeler: The Big Growth Segment of Electric Passenger Vehicles, Rajeev Chaba, Managing Director, MG Motors said, “The government definitely has made sure that everyone understands that EVs are going to come, will stay and rule the roaster. Also, the new guidelines released last week by BEE look much better considered. But the policies around EV need sustained clarity. Hope BEE will provide this consistency.”
The Start-up Accelerator Program supported by Huddle, a leading startup incubator was participated by innovative and promising start-ups companies which presented their ideas. Shortlisted companies will be announced soon and they will get the opportunity to raise funds and get incubated.