India has been targeting to expand the electric vehicle market in the country since long now. The consistent efforts, however, have been towards the procurement and use of electric vehicles on the roads. A new statement by a top government official now brings this focus to the manufacturing of EVs in India.
Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs, said on recently that in the next five years, India will become a manufacturing hub for electric vehicles. As per Gadkari, the government is trying to provide the best possible concessions to the EV sector, to the point of lowering the GST on electrical vehicles to 12 percent.
Gadkari made the claim while addressing a webinar on ‘India’s Electric Vehicle Roadmap post-COVID-19.’ The Union Minister said that he was aware of the issues faced by the EV sector. However, he claimed that he was positive that things will turn around as the sales volumes increase.
Gadkari hailed such a use of alternate sources of energy, considering the limited quantity of petroleum fuel. He considers electric and bio fuels as good alternative fuels which should be adopted in India.
In his address, Gadkari acknowledged that the world is no more interested in doing business with China. He considered this to be a very good opportunity for the Indian industry to be a part of this shift in business.
For the automobile industry in India, Gadkari pointed out the oncoming vehicle scrappage policy and assured that it will be a huge plus to the auto manufacturing sector. With the old and much polluting vehicles off the road, people are expected to buy new, cleaner vehicles for use.
Gadkari further stressed on the localisation of manufacturing operations and urged the auto industry to support Prime Minister’s ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.’
Over time, the government has even announced schemes to aid local production of vehicles, including battery electric vehicles, in India. Earlier, the government was eyeing the local production of lithium-ion batteries in the country, and following on that, it might soon come up with huge battery manufacturing plants to the accord of Tesla Gigafactories.
