Charging Ports at Fuel Bunks to Make e-Cars Road Smart
CHENNAI: The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Piyush Goyal, said the union government is mulling the implementation of electric charging ports in fuel stations across the country through the Private Public Partnership (PPP)route paving the way for electric vehicles (e-Vehicles) to become predominant in India.
Goyal, speaking to reporters at the Mahindra World City on Saturday, said that if electric vehicles are to become popular in India an electric charging port in every fuel station is necessary and that the government was working towards making that a reality.
“Ideally, every fuel station should have an electric charging port. We are working towards building up that infrastructure. It will be based on a Public Private Partnership model, it could initially be funded by the government and then evolve into a business model in itself. If we set up 5 lakh such units across the country, the cost could come down with economies of scale” he said.
Electric charging ports in every fuel station will solve one of the biggest hurdles in the mass use of electric vehicles in the country, since long distance travel in e-Vehicles is effectively stifled with very few public charging ports.
The Minister added that to promote the use of electric vehicles in the country, the MNRE has made a request to the State of Maharashtra to waive Value Added Tax(VAT), road tax and Registration fees on all electric vehicles in the state - a move which the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has responded positively to.
“I have spoken to Chief Minister Fadnavis and requested him to exempt e-vehicles from VAT, road tax and registration fee, he was positive. Will be talking to him again tomorrow on this,” he said while adding that such a request will be made to other states across the country soon.
Goyal also said that the Ministry has been electrifying India’s rural villages at the rate of around 100-120 villages a day, which will increase to 200 villages a day this year. The target, given by the PM is the electrification of 18,452 villages in 1000 days.
“We are confident that the target will be achieved in 730 days,” he said. 12 states have signed up for the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana, launched to improve financial and operational efficiencies of power distribution companies (DISCOMs), so far and the Ministry is confident that all other states will join the yojana soon.
The Ministry will also be upping the ante on solar power, increasing the target to 12,000 MW in 2016-17 to 2,000 MW in 2015-16.
