India should not miss the bus for local manufacturing of EVs: Nitin Gadkari
In June, a committee headed by NITI Aayog chief Amitabh Kant laid out a roadmap for the smooth roll-out of electric vehicles in a phased manner, as well as the setting up of battery manufacturing factories to bring down the costs of EVs.
NEW DELHI: India’s bid to electrify its fleet is progressing swiftly and the country must not ‘miss the bus’ for creating a local manufacturing base for electric vehicles, union minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari has said.
“Our dream of electrification is progressing very swiftly. Electric as a fuel is so cheap, pollution free, and cost will be competitive once the scale increases,” Gadkari said at the launch of Bajaj’s electric two-wheeler here on Wednesday.
“We should not miss this bus.Along with Make in India, we should see that India becomes the manufacturing hub for electric automobile manufacturing. This is difficult, but not impossible,” Gadkari said.
Gadkari said that he was critiqued for his innovative ideas pertaining to electric vehicles and ethanol as alternative to petrol and diesel, while these are becoming a reality now.
“Our critics would tell us that this (switch to EVs) is not possible. But there is no such thing as out-of-box for the government,” said Gadkari.
Gadkari said that the government’s policies are aimed at reducing the costs of capital, production and power to make manufacturing here more competitive.
“Slowly, as we reduce these prices, we will become competitive to export in the global market,” Gadkari said.
Gadkari said that the government diluted its tough stand on switch to electric vehicles to assure the industry of its support.
“We should not give the impression that the government is against the industry,” Gadkari said.
He added that the government was not going to set any timeline for transition to electric vehicles.
“Even now if somebody wants to manufacture or export petrol and diesel vehicles, they are free to. There is no ban on the market,” Gadkari said. “But when a consumer is offered better product, he will naturally go for it,” he added.
In June this year, a steering committee headed by NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant has in its report laid out a roadmap for the smooth roll-out of electric vehicles in a phased manner, as well as the setting up of battery manufacturing factories to bring down the costs of EVs.
This panel had drawn up an extensive plan for replacement of various categories of vehicles by EVs in certain time frames. As per it, all three-wheelers and all two-wheelers below 150cc will need to go electric by 2023 and 2025, respectively.
Gadkari later clarified that the government would not implement the timelines as suggested by Niti Aayog, citing slowdown in the automobile industry.
Source: PTI
