Sadhguru Challenges the Green Image of Electric Vehicles in India
If you ask anyone on the street, electric vehicles sound like the perfect fix for city pollution. Skip the tailpipe, silence the exhaust, and breathe easier—right? But when Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the outspoken head of the Isha Foundation, weighed in at an event in Chikkaballapur, it threw a wrench into that tidy picture. He didn’t hold back: the real environmental score on EVs is messier than it looks. According to Sadhguru, we can’t call electric vehicles a true ecological win while the country’s electricity still comes mainly from burning coal and diesel.
In India’s case, this isn’t just a technicality. Roughly three quarters of the country's electricity comes from thermal sources—mostly coal, but diesel plants pitch in too. That means plugging in a shiny new EV often links you right back to a coal-fired smokestack outside town. Sure, the city air gets cleaner and public health improves on the surface, but the emissions don’t just vanish; they’re outsourced to the countryside where the power is generated.
And it’s not some hypothetical gripe. Renewable energy—hydro, solar, wind—only makes up about 10% of the Indian grid by the best estimates. So every electric scooter, bus, or hatchback pulled off dealership lots mainly drags along a coal footprint. For Sadhguru, this just means trading one set of pollution problems for another, not actually solving the core issue of carbon and pollutant output.
Real Change Means Rethinking the Whole Energy Mix
Sadhguru has rattled cages before for his skeptical takes on rapid shifts away from fossil fuels, especially when alternatives don’t scale fast enough. He points out that if we’re serious about making EVs an actual answer to pollution, India needs more than a new fleet—it needs a total transformation in how that fleet is powered. Right now, the math just doesn’t work: 75% thermal, 25% renewable, and only a sliver of that is truly clean energy.
What does that mean for the millions eyeing electric vehicles as an easy green fix? It’s really a call to look deeper. You can’t separate technology choices from the bigger system they plug into. Sadhguru’s view is that real sustainability needs a holistic plan: ramping up renewables, modernizing the grid, and phasing out coal—not just switching what’s parked in your driveway. Until then, the EV revolution won’t deliver the clean future headlines love to promise.
His comments strike a nerve at a moment when India’s cities, desperate to fix toxic smog and health emergencies, are busy launching electric bus fleets and special EV incentives. But as the country’s energy backbone is still dark with coal ash, Sadhguru’s warning lands hard. If you really want an eco-friendly ride, you’ll need power as clean as your conscience.