In my engineering years, our professor had an interesting way of saying things. For the ones who were unwilling to change, he said - "you have a lot of inertia". I can perhaps use the same to explain what's been going on in the Indian automotive industry for many years now. Even after knowing the benefits of electric vehicles, manufacturers were slow to adopt them for various reasons. Some of them being - existing investment in the IC engine technology, new investment required for EVs and lack of public infrastructure that can facilitate this change.

Whatever the case may have been in the past, it seems that things are set to change now. And automotive industry is finally warming up to the idea. This is evident from the launch of several electric scooters and cars (iQube, Chetak, Nexon EV etc.) from major manufacturers in tandem. We are yet to see if adoption of these vehicles will happen at the same pace since they are pricier than their corresponding counterpart.
Tata Nexon EV

What are the benefits of an electric vehicle in general?

Electric vehicles definitely have a few advantages, which are:

Low running costs

The high initial cost of the electric vehicle may be offset with low running costs. The fuel prices are considerably high and are only expected to go north. While we measure fuel cost per litre, we measure electricity cost per unit. (1 unit = Electricity consumed by an appliance of 1kW in an hour). To compare, let's assume that Nexon diesel offers a fuel efficiency of 22kmpl. So, to travel 100km you would spend around Rs 300 (price of diesel considered Rs 66.07). Now, to charge Nexon EV fully, you would consume around 30 units of electricity since the battery capacity is 30.2kWh. Electricity cost in Delhi is around Rs 8, so it would cost around Rs 240 to charge it fully. However, with complete charge, the Nexon EV will travel around 250kms even if we use most conservative figures. The benefits are definitely enormous. So, as long as electricity prices don't catch up, you can save some money. In addition, the lack of requirement of a PUC (Pollution Under Control) certification every three months or so will also save you some additional money.

Relatively simpler

An electric vehicle is relatively simpler than a car / scooter that runs with an IC engine. An IC engine requires electronics and software for careful management of power, torque, dynamics, combustion process, emissions etc. I said relatively simpler, because an electric vehicle completely eliminates the IC engine and has no reciprocating parts. But, complexity of managing dynamics or power, torque of the motor, to suit to varying conditions is now done via various layers of software. The software which in addition to running the motor or managing the driving mode, also looks at charging characteristics of the battery and helps manage it.

Low maintenance cost

While manufacturers are not advertising it, but I should mention it nevertheless. That, due to the absence of reciprocating parts, the maintenance costs should come down drastically. Since, the only component that can deteriorate over time is the battery. There's no engine, so you would not need to change engine oil too. Some scooters like the Ather utilize a belt to transfer power to the rear wheel via a frame-mounted motor, so even if you do require belt replacement, it should ideally not burn a hole in your pocket. Belt should be relatively easy to replace than either a sprocket or a chain (for which generally a whole set is replaced). For others, which use a hub-motor there's no need for that either. The ones that employ gears to transmit power, may require transmission oil. Transmission oil has got considerably more life than engine oil. A thing about motors is that, a good quality motor can last a life-time and may only require few drops of lubrication from time to time. If at all anything can go bad, it's the bearing which can be replaced and the motor would become just as new.

Ather 450x

What are the shortcomings of an electric vehicle? 

The disadvantages of owning a electric vehicles at the moment are:

Lack of infrastructure 

The infrastructure required for repair and upkeep of a normal scooter is well-established. Even a road-side mechanic may be able to repair your scooter / car with an IC engine since that's what he's done all this life. Even though I do not see any fault arising in the electric vehicle due to the inherent design. In case there's a problem, in my experience, most mechanics are not that well-versed with electrical trouble-shooting, or may not be able to assist you with the software end of things. So, for a couple of years it may be an issue and you may need to get the repairs done at the company's service centre only.

Lack of after-market parts

In the case of traditional cars / bikes, parts as well as lead-acid batteries are readily available in the market and you are not dependent on the manufacturer for replacement or repairs. In case of electric vehicles, a Li-ion battery is used or a battery with a similar chemistry. Since battery is the weakest link and it's imported in many cases. The battery technology has not been truly democratised yet, in a sense that getting an aftermarket Lithium battery may be an issue and you may still be dependent on the OEM for this. This should be cause of worry only after 3 years since most manufacturers are offering a 3 year warranty on the battery. 

Flexibility / Practicality

Until the infrastructure matures and we have more public charging points, you would need to make-do with what's available. This may sometime limit the practicality and flexibility in comparison to a vehicle with an IC engine. You may charge your vehicle at home or any public charging points available in your city, but it would only take you so far as the range of the vehicle, and would need to charge again, and charging takes time. However, you can fill the fuel tank at any convenient point in a couple of minutes. So living with an electric vehicle would definitely require some planning, and in case you forget to do that, you better have time at your hands since it would take at least 15-30 minutes (even with a fast charger that some manufacturers offer) to charge to a reasonable level.
Despite the shortcomings, the electric vehicles are great indeed. With considerable adoption, they would reduce noise as well as air pollution in cities. Electric vehicles are green not only in the sense that they would be pollution free. But, decreasing the number of parts is going to impact the entire value chain which recycles the automobiles or resells them. Recycling such scooters / cars is likely to become easy with such vehicles. I envision that even the manufacturers may be interested in buy-back with considerable adoption of these vehicles . So, these vehicles are also likely to retain better value over time due to fewer wear and tear components. An added advantage is that they would not be subject to the emission norms. Ideally, with such vehicles, we should adopt laws which check and permit vehicles to ply on road based on road-worthiness of the vehicle that does not take in to account the emissions. So that the 'standing capacity' that's mentioned on the registration certificate of the vehicle becomes worthless in case of a well-kept vehicle.

Can you think of something that we missed? Comment below.