The registered association representing Indian manufacturers of electric vehicles SMEV (Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles) today sent a petition to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Electric and Hybrid Mobility. SMEV in its petition indicated that the well-intended E-Mobility Policy is being wrongfully leveraged by special interest groups against those who were instrumental in starting the e-scooter revolution in India.
In 2015, the Government of India introduced a sagacious policy to manage the environmental impact and economic – and geopolitical – costs of fuel-based mobility. The E-mobility policy was thus intended to kick-start a speeding up of e-vehicle manufacturing by an ambitious conversion of 12% by 2023.
Like any prudent policy, it envisioned the difficulties of this aspirational target as there was no existing technology base. Therefore, it created an incentivized platform of subsidies with localization at its heart. Most parts for EVs came from imports, mainly China, and so it was crafted to make the shift happen as soon as possible.
While most large two wheeler manufacturers, heavily invested in ICE vehicles, were slow to make the transition, some start-ups moved quickly. Six new entrants pushed the Indian e-2wheeler market from zero to 9 lacs in the FAME policy period.
There were enough challenges in achieving this, which multiplied with two COVID impacted years and its fall out in procurement, localization, all leading to missed deadlines. The Government acted reasonably and realized that targets needed to be moved ahead. Even before any policy tweaks could be put into play, a section of what can only be called, detractors, started pulling out the stitches of the policy. It accused the government of letting the pioneering start-up companies secure subsidies while localization levels were behind schedule. It accused the start-ups of trying to fudge data and claim subsidies. It sent anonymous letters to every department, bureaucrat and news agency insinuating connivance, fraudulence, money laundering and almost every known financial misdemeanor in the book. One by one the insinuations started piling up against the new entrants.
SMEV spokesperson said, “Normally, such anonymous campaigns should not have rattled anyone but strangely, the start-ups were progressively being cold-shouldered and subsidies withheld. These are start-ups and new players without the deep pockets of traditional fuel based scooter companies.
They will collapse without subsidies. A wonderful, well-planned and almost well executed policy so far, has been suddenly put to the test, with premeditated disaster as almost a certain outcome.”
An unusual situation has been created, where companies that served the Government’s policy and started the e-scooter revolution in India are now being edged out of the market by an anti E-Mobility Policy group. It appears that this group is clearly not keen to see the E-Mobility Policy succeed, the petition said.
