Of course, India is no exception, as being a developing country harboring the world’s worst air quality, the Indian government aims to switch 30 percent of private cars, 70 percent of commercial vehicles, and around 80 percent of two and three-wheelers to EVs as we reach the year 2030.
According to a recent report, in 2020, even during the pandemic lockdowns, 36 cities out of 50 cities in India were found to have unhealthy levels of air quality.
All this data eventually points out the frightening conditions of worsening climate change and the repercussions that our country has to handle in return.
However, incentivizing new-age technologies Government of India is rigorously promoting the adoption of EVs.
To fulfill the pledge taken at COP26 to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2070, Niti Aayog, the government think tank, had an extensive talk with multiple automakers in June 2019 and discussed the possibilities of how the country can successfully transition to electric mobility while considering 2025 as a deadline.
In this detailed talk with various heads of the automotive industry that included, Bajaj Auto Managing Director, TVS Motor Co-Chairman, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) President & CEO along with SIAM Director-General and Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) Director-General, suggested to introduce a well laid-out roadmap and a practical time frame for the proper roll-out of EVs in the country.
This fruitful meeting along with several other discussions turned out to be the changemaker in making the EV Policies in India.
Without stretching out the significance and reasons for adopting EVs in India as we have already had a detailed discussion about all these in my previous article, “India to Go Electric in 2022 or Not?”, let’s discuss some of the most important EV Policies in India.
EV Policies in India
To combat the issues of transitioning new sales of ICE vehicles to 100% plug-in electric vehicles (EV) by 2030, EV Policies in India intends to boost the adoption of EVs at a larger scale. Hence, we are going to discuss some of the most popular EV Policies in India that includes,
Centre’s Scrappage Policy
Citing the first policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had revealed the Vehicle Scrappage Policy in August, 2021.
The main aim of this hyped policy was to phase out unfit and polluting vehicles in an environment-friendly manner.
According to the laid-out plan, the vehicles needed to be scrapped are to be done by their age and also if they are found to be unfit in automated testing.
With a set goal to apply these EV Policies in India for private vehicles, it has a deadline of 2024 while offering a much-needed boost for the Indian automotive sector and bringing investments of around Rs 10,000 crore.
FAME II Amendment
Another name in the famed EV Policies in India, the government has amended the ongoing FAME-II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles-II) scheme on June 2021.
The amendment brings along the reduction of the price gap between petrol-based two-wheelers and electric ones by increasing the subsidy rate for electric two-wheelers that is, ranging from Rs 10,000/kWh to Rs 15,000/kWh.
The amendment also capped the incentives at 40 percent of the vehicles’ cost as against the 20 percent one from earlier.
PLI Scheme for Auto Sector
In a recent move in upgrading the EV Policies in India, the Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 26,058 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to ramp up the domestic manufacturing of electric as well as fuel cell vehicles and drones in India.
With an estimated allocation fund of Rs 25,938 crore for the auto sector and the remaining Rs 120 crore for the drone industry, the government of India has set its goal to accelerate the production as well as sales of EVs in the current market.
Closing Statements
With continued efforts, nothing in this world is unachievable.
Citing one of the latest initiatives initiated by the Government of India to upgrade the EV Policies in India, the Centre released E-Amrit, a web portal for EVs in India at the COP26 Summit in Glasgow.
The app is designed to provide all the necessary details and information on electronic vehicles, to spread awareness among consumers about the benefits of switching to electric vehicles while also busting various myths around the adoption of EV’s and their purchases.
Following their footsteps to not miss the Electric mobility wave flowing across the globe, multiple states of India have formulated their own EV Policies in India.
Sprinting to reach the target of going net-zero and bring the crown of earning the title of the first country to go fully electric, has made many governments in the world aggressively push the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs).
