India’s oil demand looks to EV threat

Two wheels rather than four appear to be the biggest game-changer for India’s road oil use

India’s growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is expected to reduce the country’s crude demand by 250,000–500,000b/d in the medium term.   India is the world’s third-largest automotive market, having overtaken Japan in 2023 and retained the spot since then. Like most large vehicle markets, the country has seen a significant interest in EVs in the past few years. The government has set ambitious targets for EV penetration by 2030, targeting 30% for private cars, 70% for commercial vehicles, 40% for buses and 80% for two- and three-wheeled vehicles. This would amount to nearly 80m EVs on Indian roads by the target date, although some projections put the figure much higher, with some stat