The Ministry of Heavy Industries will hold a second round of meeting with stakeholders in a “month or two” to issue draft guidelines for the new electric vehicle (EV) policy that has been framed to attract global automakers like Tesla to set up manufacturing operations in India, a senior official said on Monday. Automakers wishing to avail of incentives under the policy will have to invest afresh as per the new norms, and old investments will not be considered, the official said.

This has been told to Vietnam’s electric carmaker Vinfast, which in February this year had said it would invest USD 500 million (Rs 4,000 crore) in Tamil Nadu over a period of five years, according to the official.

In a significant move aimed at revolutionising the EV landscape in India, the government approved the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India (SPMEPCI) on March 15, 2024.

The first stakeholders’ meeting was held in April in which an advisor representing Tesla — The Asia Group (TAG) — had also attended.

“We have got a lot of representations. We have studied them so maybe in a month or two we may have the second consultative meeting. The task before us is to issue guidelines,” the official explained.

Stating that the government wants to issue them through a consultative process, the official said, “We will make the draft guidelines and will circulate those amongst the possible applicants and again call a consultative meeting”.