NEW DELHI: India’s electric vehicle industry has welcomed the government’s move to allow the selling and registration of electric vehicles without batteries. According to the industry, this would widen opportunities for manufacturers and buyers both.
“Tax rebates will help drive the demand better. This is also expected to reduce the overall cost of acquisition of the product by saving amount in the vehicle registration procedure, thus offering affordability. We look forward to more such industry boosting policies,” said Jeetender Sharma, MD of EV maker Okinawa.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways noted that the decision will allow the EVs cost to be disassociated from that of the battery, which accounts for 30-40 per cent of current EV cost. Batteries, then, can be sold separately.
“For this to take off and efficiently pass on the benefit to the consumer, we ought to work towards a strong infrastructure that allows EV owners to charge and swap batteries wherever they require. I look forward to more such positive interventions,” said Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric.
Meanwhile, Ampere Electric said that such policies were the need of the hour since increased pollution levels have been caused by a rapid rise in fossil fuel vehicles. EV sales took a big hit after the outbreak of Covid-19. JMK Research data shows that only 7,411 high-speed EV units were sold in July, compared to 16,434 in January this year.