EV Conference
Electric is the way forward
The idea of electric cars has been floating about on Indian minds for several years now. Every international trip is a reminder of how far behind the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry is, in the Indian subcontinent. But all that seems to be headed for a change.
Addressing an ASSOCHAM International Conference on electric vehicles: Future road map for India, Delhi government's Transport Minister, Kailash Gahlot said that they are soon likely to come out with a policy to incentivise people willing to shift from fossil fuels as an energy source to electric energy. This comes after Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari said that the government was aggressively promoting the EV policy and pro actively addressing the loopholes in the system.
Taking a cue from a recently released paper by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) that es-
POLICY TO INCENTIVISE PEOPLE WILLING TO SHIFT FROM FOSSIL FUELS AS AN ENERGY SOURCE TO ELECTRIC ENERGY
timated a 40 percent transition from fossil fuels to electric energy by 2030, Gahlot however turned towards the Centre for infrastructural support. SIAM also estimates a 100 percent transition by 2047.
Currently under the Union Government, the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles programme (FAME) incentivises customers opting for an EV option. From the production end, at present Mahindra & Mahindra is perhaps the only carmaker to sells electric cars in India. The company is likely to have three new cars between 2019-20. They are followed by Tata Motors, who have been in talks with Norwegian car manufacturers to come up with a sedan of their own.
Impressing upon the urgency to upgrade to cleaner fuel, NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant said “We will continue to support this movement in a very big way, we will continue to support all OEM and Indian manufacturers. We would like major disruptions to take place in India, we would like interoperable charging systems and we would like to support EVs by a vast range of initiatives like lower road taxes and push them and the government will act as a catalyst to support this entire movement." He further added “The change is inevitable but we should do it in a manner where we do not disturb combustion vehicle manufacturing."