India has been a victim of lot of debates over growing environment problems. The result, diesel engines were blamed and that led to ban on some of them in the country’s capital – New Delhi. While the government understand the importance of electric vehicles in the country, it still hasn’t gone full force with its application.
But thanks to cut in taxes via FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of electric vehicles), the electric vehicles industry in India have registered a 37.5 per cent increase in sales in FY 2015-2016. A total of 22,000 units were sold in the last financial year, where majority of them came from two-wheelers at 20,000. The industry sold 16,000 electric vehicles last year.
The government’s National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 plans to have five to six million electric vehicles by 2020. However, the manufacturers feel that in order to achieve this, the government should work on removing the ground level deficiencies and finance should be provided to buy green vehicles. The companies also wants government to bring into zero tax regime for green vehicles at the same time promote these vehicles nationally.
“SMEV has developed a technology for charging station and can easily set-up 1000 charging station across the city in a span of 3 months. One charging station costs around INR 30,000 which is very minimal to create an efficient charging infrastructure for EVs. The only thing we need is the government’s intention and support to create a wide and accessible network of charging stations at every convenient point - be it our local market or city roads. Additionally, the govt. should provide ease of credit at zero per cent or very low rate of interest on EVs. This will go a long way in ensuring the fulfilment of NEMMP 2020 target,” said Sohinder Gill, director, corporate affairs, SMEV.
