Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways & MSME Nitin Gadkari, said the government is trying to create an ecosystem to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles in the country.

Addressing a virtual conference ‘9th Edition of Auto Serve 2020‘Electric Mobility Conference 2020-Seizing Opportunities in New Normal, Gadkari said the government is planning to set up at least one electric vehicle charging kiosk at around 69,000 petrol pumps across the country.

He said the government has taken a number of steps to promote electric vehicles such as the reduction in GST to 5%, allowing delinking of battery cost of 2-3 wheelers from vehicle cost as it accounts for nearly 30% of the cost etc.

Gadkari also said, the “government is also working towards making India a global automobile manufacturing hub in the next five years.’

He stressed that India is poised to become a global automobile manufacturing hub in the next 5 years. This, he said, is possible as India’s auto industry has made significant strides in terms of development of different designs and models, robust R&D, huge market, stable government frame-work and bright & young engineering minds. He added India already is the largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world.

Considering the huge potential of the sector, the government has earmarked over Rs 51,000 crore for this sector under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, the highest amongst the 10 champion sectors. He also stated that there is a huge requirement of about 25 million skilled jobs in the automobile sector in near future. This is very significant as this industry is going to create maximum jobs and growth, he added.