EV Club...

“So, for a person looking to buy a family car which could be used for a variety of purposes, all the EV models now and going forward will have a 100-150kw motor, and they may not pick an EV,” he said.

He said that brands available in the 50kw range are mainly Indian and Chinese small cars which could only pass off as secondary vehicles to be used in cities, while the popular Nissan Leaf and other offerings with similar capabilities now have a 100150kw motor.

“So we request that the 50-100kw tax bracket be extended from 50-150kw,” Wimaladharma said.

Meanwhile, Abeywickrama also said that having the low duty structure for brand new and 1 year old EVS and double the taxes for older vehicles is a policy made with incorrect information.

“Maybe they were influenced by people who said that importing older cars will result in having to deal with old batteries. Yes, the batteries can be toxic, but the solution should not have been to discourage imports of old cars. The old batteries could have been used at home to store solar power, recycled, or exported. The government should incentivize that,” he said.

Wimaladharma said that the request of the EV Club is for the tax cuts to be also effective on at least cars that are 2 years old.

“The current proposals need to be relaxed significantly. During 2015, when there was a favourable tax environment, around 3,500 EVS were imported. Even if 10,000 are imported annually, it won’t be enough to reach the government’s goals in the next 20 years, when there are 700,000 vehicles in the country. So further incentives are required,” he said.

The government’s policy is to have only electric and hybrid vehicles operating by 2040.