India’s Push for EV Infrastructure – What it Means for Designers?

As India ushers in a new era of technological and infrastructural developments, Electric Vehicles are its newest obsession. India is pushing hard for EVs and EV infrastructure, and the reasons for it are manifold. From pollution control to traffic control to sustainable use to saving fossil fuels, Electric Vehicles are every bit important to a transportation society like India.

They are, essentially, the need of the hour. However, to push for a transportation society that heavily relies on EVs, we need an infrastructure to balance it. While India is already making big plans to build such infrastructure, it could leave a big impact on designers. Here’s how India’s push for EV infrastructure can mean a multitude of things for its designers.

As the electric vehicle infrastructure gets developed, designers around the country, from various fields, will find themselves with new and unique challenges to mitigate. First would be the rethinking of urban mobility and infrastructure. The Indian urban landscape is currently like an overcrowded concrete jungle.

Add to that the ultimate chaos of the Indian transportation network and the traffic that comes along with it, and it serves as an imminent problem. Just as EVs emerge as a happy solution to the problem, urban city designers and planners also have their work laid out to support the EV infrastructure.

Elements such as charging stations are new to the Indian transportation network. Designers must learn to integrate EV charging into the existing urban fabric of transportation networks. Areas such as parking lots, highways, residential areas, and malls are going to be redesigned to better suit the needs of electric vehicles, as opposed to gasoline-run vehicles. More precisely, the infrastructure will accommodate both gasoline-run vehicles and electric vehicles for the time being.

India’s urban landscape is chaotic, to say the least. Therefore, the charging points in charging stations will need to be visible, intuitive, and secure. This would mean the aesthetics of those stations also becomes very important alongside their functionality.

Another aspect of redesigning the Indian urban landscape, brought about by EV infrastructure, would be Wayfinding and Signage. India is a multicultural, multilingual, and multiethnic society with diverse cities; therefore, it requires well-thought-out signage and navigation ads. While this isn’t specifically a requirement brought about due to the onset of EV infrastructure (it is equally important for gasoline-powered vehicles), the wayfinding and signage would carry extra significance and importance with EVs. That’s because of the novelty of the concept in a country like India. India, in its infinitely complex society, would require extra help with the way EVs operate, at least in the initial days.

While Interior designers might have their work cut out, Space Designers might get their work doubled with the construction of EV infrastructure. Almost all Indian urban areas are densely populated and overcrowded with vehicles. There is an alarming lack of parking spaces everywhere. It, once again, falls upon designers to tackle and mitigate this problem.

Space Designers are experienced in arranging public places, parking areas, transportation hubs, and other common locations. They would need to understand what sort of spatial arrangements will be necessary for a holistic network of electric vehicle in the society. It would mainly require creating spatial solutions that are necessary.

The other design changes would likely involve within the vehicle itself. Transportation and Automobile designers will have a new set of design challenges to inculcate in their work. Elements such as ‘Battery-Swap Units’ in two-wheelers and three-wheelers, where batteries are swappable, are quite popular among electric vehicles. Compact, weatherproof units of home chargers, that are catered to Indian households, are also a necessity with electric vehicles.

Some other electric vehicle accessories that require designing are racks, portable chargers, and colling systems. The latter of the three should be specifically designed to adapt to Indian climate.

Other than that, UI/UX designers will get an upward jolt in their work dur to electric vehicle operations. Indian users will rely a lot on locating charging stations, booking slots, and managing EV health. Apps and Dashboard will require a redesign in accordance to suit that need. Payment options, where the user experience can account for multiple payment systems such as UPI, Wallets, Credit Cards, etc., will also be important. Redesigning the system for Interoperability, especially with multiple language preference, will also be an important feature.

Another aspect that falls under UI/UX design is real-time data visualization. In this chaotic atmosphere of Indian transportation, it will be imperative to design a clean, clear, and efficient dashboard for both EV users and station operators. This will create less confusion and increase the overall efficiency of the mode of transportation.

Sustainability is at the heart of electric vehicles and its operability. Therefore, it also has to be at the heart of its design concepts. Sustainable design, in the context of EVs, would require designing services and systems for recycling and reuse. The 3Rs, i.e. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, are increasingly being implemented into almost every new design today, as a measure of sustainability and being environment-friendly. Things such as End-of-Life Battery Management and material choices play a vital part in contributing to the environmental cause.

As EVs start becoming a norm in our society, there will be a continual series of changes in its design and production, mainly as a way to function properly. But for now, with the onset of EVs and its infrastructure being nigh, these are the imminent impact it will have on designers.