‘Preparing road map on manufacture of only electric vehicles by 2030’
Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal said here on Friday that the government was preparing a road map for production and sale of only electric vehicles in the country by 2030. Interacting with presspersons, Mr. Goyal said every vehicle produced and sold in the country would be electric ones and the NITI Ayog was preparing the road map for its execution. Different ministries had given their inputs and ideas which were being worked out by experts as part of a national mission to promote solar energy power plants and electric vehicles.
As a significant step in this direction, the Centre plans to procure at least 10,000 electric cars to phase out the government vehicles in New Delhi, said the Minister but did not specify any time frame for it (for procurement of 10,000 electric cars).
Rejecting hybrid vehicles as being unviable, he described it as an intermediate technology for which the country had no use. India should opt for the best available technology. A few manufacturers are promoting hybrid vehicles because they do not have electric vehicles in their portfolio, the Minister said.
The automobile industry is warm to the idea and has responded positively, said Mr. Goyal, adding that the shift from petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles will reduce India’s dependence on oil and the recurring cost of import of fossil fuels. Besides, it will strengthen the rupee while current account deficit would disappear but above all air will be cleaner and will be an “end-to-end solution to address the issues of climate change”, the Minister said. Expressing confidence of the shift from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles by 2030, Mr. Goyal said the government will help establish charging stations to start with. But later through franchisee model it will help create jobs for lakhs of entrepreneurs to establish charging stations across the country. “It will be self-sustaining, the electric vehicles will be cheaper and the operating costs will also reduce which will be an economic incentive for the public to patronise the same,” he said.
The Centre was also giving a push to the use of LED bulbs, said Mr.Goyal pointing out that it had distributed 1.66 crore LED bulbs in the State alone under the UJALA scheme. “We want to ensure that all bulbs used in the country by 2020 would be LED ones resulting in both cost and energy savings,” the Minister added.
Mr. Goyal claimed that there was power surplus in the country and the Centre had set the most ambitious plan and road map for shoring up renewable energy production with a target of adding 175 giga Watt of power generated through solar by 2022.
Source:TheHindu
