There is a narrow strip of water, measuring only 33 km wide at its tightest point that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world’s oceans. For most of India’s history, the Strait of Hormuz was a distant geographic fact, which not many people thought or really cared about. However, 2026 changed everything, and the strait became a household problem for the entire world including India. When the United States and Israeli strikes on Iran in February 2026 effectively shut the strait to Western-allied shipping, the consequences for India were immediate. The country imports ~90% of its crude, valued at $117.5 billion in FY26, with 40-50% normally transiting through the Strait of Hormuz. Every $10 jump in the price of oil adds $12–15 billion to that import bill and widens the current account deficit by 30–40 basis points. With Brent Crude prices moving from $66 to well over $100 per barrel within weeks, the maths turned brutal almost overnight. This is not a new vulnerability, but rather a chronic one. And every oil shock from 1973, 1990, 2008, 2022, and now 2026 has delivered the same lesson: India cannot build a $10 trillion economy on the back of an energy supply it does not control. The electric vehicle is not merely a cleaner automobile but is also a path to strategic autonomy for India. Trucks, despite being just 3% of the vehicle fleet, contributed over 34% of transport-related CO₂ emissions and 53% of particulate emissions, according to a study by NITI Aayog and RMI just a few years ago. Trucks and buses together consume more than half of all transport sector diesel and 60% of their operating cost is fuel. Electrify the commercial fleet first, and you move the needle on three things at once: oil imports, urban air quality, and the livelihoods of millions of gig workers and fleet operators for whom fuel is the single largest line item in their economics. According to FY26 retail data from the Government’s Vahan Portal, India’s EV market recorded sales of 2.45 million units in FY26 touching 8.27% of all new vehicle registrations. Two- and three-wheelers accounted for over 91% of total EV sales in India. As per FADA retail data, more than 60% of all three-wheelers sold in India today are already electric and the country surpassed China in 2023 to become the world’s largest market for electric three-wheelers, and has held that position since. This is not subsidy-driven demand. The IEA estimates electric three-wheelers in India are 70% cheaper than gasoline equivalents over their lifetime. The economics are simply superior. Companies in our portfolio see this every day. Exponent Energy is solving the 15-minute fast charge problem for fleets, while ZingBus is electrifying inter-city bus routes that have run on diesel for 40 years. The pattern is consistent: where the unit economics work, electrification follows. What has changed for India in 2026 is not the direction of travel, but rather the urgency with which the country needs to move towar
