Driving change - how EV policy shapes adoption, air quality, and health outcomes in India

Abstract

The adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) is increasingly recognised as a key strategy for promoting sustainability and addressing public health challenges by reducing the air pollution associated with traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. In India, where vehicular tailpipe emissions contribute to an already deteriorating air quality, policies that promote EV adoption can reduce pollution and alleviate the public health burdens caused by exposure to polluted air. As such, we assess the effects that these policies have on three outcomes: EV adoption rates, air pollution, and health outcomes, using staggered difference-in-difference (DiD), dynamic and fixed effects regression models.

Our study found that EV policies significantly boost adoption, with immediate and lasting effects, highlighting the effectiveness of policy intervention. In states that saw greater EV adoption due to EV policies, a corresponding significant reduction in PM2.5 levels was observed. We found that electric buses were associated with the largest reduction in PM2.5 levels amongst all other vehicle types, highlighting the effectiveness of adopting electric buses to mitigate air pollution. Next, our analysis also revealed that exposure to air pollution exacerbated years of life loss due to COPD. Our study also found that as elevation rose, states saw increases in EV registrations due to potential energy savings over their ICE counterparts. For urbanisation rate, we also found a positive correlation with EV adoption, possibly due to greater availability of EV infrastructure in more urbanised states. As for income, we noted that richer states saw reductions in EV registrations compared to poorer states, likely because fuel costs to run ICE vehicles made up a greater proportion of income in poorer states.

Overall, our study revealed significant insights into the effectiveness of EV policies in encouraging EV adoption and the resultant impact on reducing air pollution for greater health outcomes. These insights will augment future efforts to encourage the adoption of EVs.