Will the top 15 worst polluting cities in the world will all be in India by 2025

Looks surely so. India may achieve the dubious distinction of having the worst polluting cities around the world as China may vacate this ignomous list in 5 to 7 years. Some of the cities like Delhi are already ahead of the most polluting cities in China, atleast during some months of the year and the much touted National mission on electric vehicles seems to derailed for want of the will and resources of the government.

Two major steps taken by China will definitely pave the way for the blue skys and clean air. One- moving polluting industry far away from the cities and second is the electrification of vehicles motor vehicles being the largest source of pollution in most of China’s cities. Chinese produced 680,000 all-electric cars, buses and trucks in 2017, more thanthe rest of the world combined. And China’s output is growing faster than the rest of the world. Some cities like Shenzhen have converted their entire bus fleet to battery electric vehicles. Other cities are sure to follow suit. Interestingly while the world is going the PHEV way, these are fast disappearing in China specially in the commercial segment.

China has also pioneered the mass development of charging statiosn with 214,000 already in place at the end of 2017. These are places where anyone can charge up their cars, and are in addition to the 232,000 already installed at the car owners’ own home. Given that there are 1.72 million EVs on the country’s roads, the ratio of China’s EVs to charging stations is approaching 1 station to every 4 EVs