NEW DELHI: To create a robust ecosystem for electric vehicles and give a boost to the EV (electric vehicle) market, the government could look at putting EVs in the priority lending sector as it will help citizens afford EVs at lower interest rates, said Sohinder Gill, DG of Society Of Manufacturers Of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), on the expectations of the industry from the upcoming Union Budget.
Gill also said that unless we work seriously and diligently on EV batteries, we will end up in a situation similar to, if not worse than, our dependence on crude oil. “The government could allocate sufficient funds for Research & Development in a public-private partnership mode with a time-bound objective to create EV batteries that are less dependent on offshore minerals and best suited to the Indian condition. ACC (advanced chemistry cell) scheme can be suitably amended to incentivise the R&D efforts.”
The industry body is also seeking amendment in the PLI scheme for automobile and auto component.
Yatin Gupte, CMD of Wardwizard Innovations & Mobility, said that the focus needs to be on infrastructure development and incentives for customers, which will eventually increase the demand.