Climate change

Financing India’s e-mobility transition

29 April 2024

Macquarie has developed a new blended finance platform with Green Climate Fund (GCF), which seeks to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) across India, with the aim of helping to reduce the country’s CO2 emissions and improve urban air quality. 

Known as ‘Vertelo’, the platform was officially launched in April 2024. The platform aims to deliver $US1.5 billion over the investment term to accelerate India’s transition towards higher levels of electric vehicles. 

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Sector Climate change
Sub-sector Transport
Location India

Opportunity

Transportation is India’s third-highest greenhouse gas-emitting sector, contributing 13 per cent of total CO2 emissions, which have more than tripled since 19901.

Transport emissions are forecast to increase and are a major contributor to poor urban air quality2. There is a significant opportunity to decarbonise the transport sector through electrification, but the transition faces barriers due to high vehicle acquisition costs, technology risks and the availability of charging infrastructure. The Government of India has identified transportation as a key priority as part of India’s COP26 pledge to achieve net zero carbon emission by 20703.

Approach

Macquarie has developed a platform which aims to introduce unique leasing and financing solutions to reduce the high upfront capital expenditure associated with EVs, tackle impediments around EV charging infrastructure and manage uncertainty around commercial EV performance.

Working across the e-mobility ecosystem, the platform also aims to contribute to an enabling environment for EV growth, leading to increased penetration of EVs and new market participants, including the growth of financing solutions and domestic manufacturing, and contributing to decreasing air pollution in urban environments.

With a 10-year implementation period, the platform is expected to deliver potential lifetime reduction of ~9.5 MtCO2e of greenhouse gas emissions4.

GCF has approved a commitment for up to $US200 million of junior equity to establish a first-of-its-kind EV focused leasing and financing company in India5. The blended finance structure is designed to crowd-in private sector capital, leveraging GCF’s commitment to provide a risk-mitigating buffer to commercial investors6. Macquarie aims to raise a further $US205 million from institutional investors to capitalise the platform, and over time, the platform hopes to mobilise a total of ~$US1.5 billion of capital (including debt finance).

GCF was established to support the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change. It seeks to promote a paradigm shift to low-emission and climate-resilient development through providing concessional finance to accelerate transformational projects and innovation7.

In addition to developing this platform, Macquarie is involved in a number of other activities in India. With Tata Sons, Macquarie is a co-chair of CFLI India, an initiative to mobilise investment into India and begin a long-term effort with public, private, and multilateral initiatives to strengthen local enabling environments and facilitate private capital at scale. Macquarie Group Managing Director and CEO Shemara Wikramanayake is also co-leading a workstream on Mobilising Capital for Emerging Markets and Developing Economies as part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.

Macquarie has been investing in India since 2008, committing and investing $US 2.5 billion to date.

Outcome

The platform would target $US1.5 billion over the investment term to accelerate India’s transition towards higher levels of electric vehicles. With a proposed 10-year implementation period, it aims to deliver a potential lifetime reduction of ~9.5 MtCO2e of GHG emissions.

$US1.5 billion

target over the investment term

10 year

implementation period

~9.5 MtCO2e

potential lifetime reduction of GHG emissions

  1. International Energy Agency, India. Data downloaded 11/05/2023. Proportion of emissions attributed to the transport sector in 2020 (13%) was calculated by comparing the CO2 emissions from transport in India in 2020 (270 MtCO2) to the total CO2 emissions in India in 2020 (2075 MtCO2).
  2. Transitioning India's Road Transport Sector, IEA, 2023
  3. India's Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategy, 2022
  4.  Emission reductions are based on the business plan at the time of the funding proposal, May 2022. As the EV platform entails funding of both electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging infrastructure, a combination of two existing peer-reviewed methodologies was used to assess the level of GHG emissions reduced by the platform over the implementation period of 10 years. Both the methodologies are based on the core principles of Tier 1 and Tier 2 methods specified under 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, and 2019 IPCC Guidelines Refinement.
    Methodology 1, AMS-III.C.: Emission reductions by electric and hybrid vehicles — Version 15.0 is applicable to Electric vehicles (E-buses, electric light commercial vehicles (like electric trucks), two/three and four wheelers). There is a limitation where this methodology can be used only for small scale projects (projects which reduce GHG emissions less than or equal to 60 ktCO2 equivalent annually), but given no other viable option, this methodology was used.
    Methodology 2, VM0038 - Methodology for Electric Vehicle Charging Systems, version 1.0 is applicable to EV charging systems, including their associated infrastructure.
    The baseline scenario for computation is defined as the GHG emissions reduced due to the replacement of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles across Indian urban and semi-urban setup by funding comparable electric transportation vehicles (i.e. e-buses, e-cars, e-three wheelers and e-two wheelers.) and funding electric charging infrastructure (ECI) to support the operation of comparable electric vehicle fleets.
  5. Green Climate Fund Funding Proposal: FP186 India E-Mobility Financing Program
  6. Green Climate Fund Funding Proposal: FP186 India E-Mobility Financing Program
  7. Green Climate Fund

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