Lack Of Skilled Workforce, Standardisation Gaps Slowing E-Mobility: Experts

India’s electric-mobility transition faces persistent challenges, including shortages of trained workers and a lack of technical standardisation, industry experts said at a policy roundtable in New Delhi. The event was organised by the Indo-German Partnership for Green and Sustainable Development (GSDP).

The comments were made during the ninth edition of the GSDP Conversation Series, held under the theme “Electric Mobility: From System Integration to Skills Development”. The session brought together officials from central ministries, state governments, city authorities, public transport agencies, distribution companies, industry representatives, financiers and skill-development institutions.

Key Bottlenecks 

Meenu Sarawgi, chief of strategy and operations at the Automotive Skills Development Council, said that while charging infrastructure has expanded rapidly, the deployment of trained personnel at charging sites and service locations has not kept pace. She said the skills gap is contributing to safety concerns and range anxiety issues among new EV users.

Promod R, head of marketing, strategy and innovation at Bosch Mobility India, said that the sector needs stronger standardisation, including common telemetry protocols and uniform interface requirements, to ensure EV systems can be scaled efficiently and accessed by a wider base of users.

Mahua Acharya, co-founder of Intent Platform and former CEO of CESL, said India needs to prioritise the development of charging stations along highways rather than concentrating installations primarily in urban areas. She also cited early electric-bus tendering rounds, sharing examples and lessons from those procurements that could inform future large-scale deployments.

India-Germany Collaboration 

In a keynote address, Christine Toetzke, Director General for Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern/Southeastern Europe at Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), said Germany and India share a long partnership anchored in climate-aligned development. She said electric mobility represents a broader transformation in urban design, mobility behaviour and economic opportunity.

“As India advances this transition at remarkable scale and speed, Germany stands ready to support with system-level planning, vocational-skills development and innovation in areas such as battery management and circular-economy solutions,” she said.

The Indo-German Partnership for Green and Sustainable Development (GSDP), launched in 2022, supports cooperation on climate-compatible development and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Panel participants included Promod R of Bosch Mobility India, Mahua Acharya, co-founder of Intent Platform and former CEO of CESL, and Meenu Sarawgi of the Automotive Skills Development Council. The discussion was moderated by Swati Khanna, senior transport specialist at KfW, and Manjunath Chande, project director at GIZ’s SUM-ACA programme.