Tamil Nadu's $1 tn economy target achievable with increased focus on EV sector: Report

Chennai, May 2 (KNN) The Tamil Nadu government can achieve its set target of becoming a USD 1 trillion economy by 2030-2031 with an increased focus on the electric vehicle sector, according to the latest FICCI-Deloitte report.

The report titled “Towards One Trillion: Accelerating Tamil Nadu’s Progress to Become a Trillion-Dollar Economy”,  highlights that given the need to become a global leader in EV automobiles, the focus today needs to be on the well-established automotive cluster in the Chennai-Kancheepuram-Chengalpattu-Tiruvallur corridor besides utilising the existing auto-manufacturing infrastructure and industry presence.

“Given the infancy of this sector in the state, the state will need to intervene in infrastructure creation, start-up support, and social development. In addition to the already proposed EV park in Hosur and Manalur, TN could also enable the setting up of key technology nerve centres along the corridor, linking the identified cities in the policy,” the report said.

As per reports, the Tamil Nadu government has already begun to identify key EV cities in the state.

The FICCI -Deloitte report pointed out that the R&D nerve centre ecosystem could enable start-ups to have co-working spaces located alongside OEM/ tier-1 R&D centres.

Further, OEMs can offload new research activities to interested start-ups and acquire technologies from them. Furthermore, OEMs and start-ups can collaborate to adapt EV production technologies for Indian MSMEs to push localisation, it said.

Besides supply-side interventions, citizen-centric policy changes may be adopted to enable the increase in demand of the electric automotive sector within the state. The current EV policy aims to convert 30 per cent of bus fleets (60,000 vehicles) in public transport and educational institutions to EV by 2030.

The report said that EV conversion can also be achieved via EV retrofitting. Retrofit kits for existing autos can help with electrification goals, and battery standardisation with retro fit kits can help push battery swap infrastructure as well. These changes will increase demand and make the public more open to adopting EV.  (KNN Bureau)