This paper looks at how electric vehicles fit into the broader push for sustainable transportation, especially in a country like India where the challenges are quite different from what Western markets face. Climate change has made it hard to ignore the environmental cost of conventional vehicles, and the transportation sector, which runs almost entirely on fossil fuels, is one of the biggest contributors to that problem. Against this backdrop, EVs have started gaining serious traction as a practical, not just theoretical, alternative. The study draws on secondary data — government reports, industry publications, and academic research — rather than primary fieldwork. The approach is largely qualitative, using a mix of comparative analysis and case-based reasoning. A good portion of the discussion centers on the Indian market, with Tata Motors serving as the main example because it has arguably done more than any other domestic player to push EVs into the mainstream. What the research found is that EVs do genuinely deliver on their environmental promise, particularly when it comes to cutting tailpipe emissions in dense urban areas. The economics also work in their favor over time, since running and maintaining an EV tends to cost significantly less than a petrol or diesel vehicle. That said, real barriers remain. The upfront price is still steep for a large chunk of Indian consumers, charging stations outside major cities are few and far between, and the full lifecycle of a battery — from mining to disposal — carries its own environmental baggage. The study’s broader takeaway is that EVs are a genuine step forward, but they’re not the finish line. Whether they actually deliver on their sustainability potential depends on things like how clean the electricity grid is, how battery technology evolves, and whether policymakers stay committed to the transition over the long term. At this point, EVs are better understood as part of a shift toward cleaner mobility rather than a complete solution in themselves.
Rao et al. (Mon,) studied this question.