It is nothing new that India supports the trend of electric car, as already there are several electric car brands available in the country. However, the country has shown much of its eagerness to make this trend even intense off lately, with the announcement of Rs. 1,400 crore ($225 million) impetus for the electric vehicles industry. Indian government also has plans to start giving incentives in the next few years, as it desires to have a minimum of 6 million electric cars by 2020 on roads.
Government and auto industry would together raise the fund
With this scheme, the Indian government is hoping to bring a considerable reduction in the liquid fuel consumption, which is pretty much and costs too much annually. This is why the government is planning to spend Rs. 1400 crore in the next two years, as in they will give subsidies to buyers on their purchase and incentives to makers for manufacturing electric cars, and hopefully by the year 2020 there would be a minimum of six million electric cars on Indian roads.
This scheme is probably going to be a part of this year’s Union Budget of the country. The analysts believe that this particular scheme is certainly going to improve India’s standing in global climate change discussions. To go by the news, the finance ministry has asked heavy industries department to think of and develop several efficient ways to track subsidies an incentives online.
Reason behind India’s keenness on development of electric cars
India is a developing country, and just like any other country it also depends upon some other countries for the fulfillment of needs. One such requirement is oil that India imports from gulf countries. The import of liquid fuel every year costs a lot to the Indian government, which is why it desires to reduce its dependence on foreign fuel.
If more and more electric cars would be manufactured, the level of dependence would fall. They would be such nice additions from the energy security point of view and from the environmental point of view as well. If more cars on the road would be electric cars then certainly the environment would benefit, as they would bring about a major drop in the carbon emissions. As of now, the automobiles are responsible for a major contribution to the air pollution that causes climatic changes for bad.
Automakers react
The founder of Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt. Ltd said that the making this issue a national mission by the government is a delayed process. He further hoped that the government would implement this scheme at the earliest. He said that the government’s plan is holistic and hopes that it turns out to be something like the strategy China had used, which resulted in 500 percent increase in the sale of electric cars.
Some automakers feel that the target of Indian government to have around 6 million electric vehicles on road by 2020 is of course very noble but in a way aggressive too. It is aggressive in the sense that at the moment the country does not have sufficient infrastructure and the required funds, if they do not manage to secure required funds on time then this plan might turn out to be a failure. However, the government is optimistic and hopefully, their optimism will turn things in favor of the plan.
Summary
In its efforts to reduce country’s dependency on foreign countries for the liquid fuel requirement, the government of India is putting in all efforts to increase the production of electric cars.
