India Offers $1.4 Billion In Subsidies To Support The Domestic Electric Vehicle Industry

Electric Tuk Tuk [image credit: cleantechnica.com]

But India makes a point of not handing any money to people wanting to buy the more expensive EVs, as Forbes News reports. Whether they can produce enough electricity to back up their policy is not clear. The majority of their power supply is from coal, plus some diesel generators.

To encourage the growth of the electric vehicle (EV) industry in India, the government has developed a two-pronged strategy aimed at both buyers and manufacturers: $1.4 billion in subsidies are to be offered, followed by a hike on import tariffs within the next year to spur domestic companies to build the vehicles.

The new policy, which was cleared by the cabinet late last month but the details of which were not available till now, kicks in with the new financial year in April.

The scheme promises to lay out $1.4 billion in subsidies over three years for electric buses, three-wheelers, four-wheelers that are registered as commercial vehicles as well as private motorbikes and scooters.

Unlike other countries where the incentives for EVs has been focused on personal vehicles like those produced by Tesla, India, where less than four million cars are sold annually, is instead focusing on its public transport system.

Hence the primary aim of the policy on subsidies for buses and three-wheelers as well as two-wheelers, a hugely popular, and affordable, mode of transport.

While EVs are still a negligible component of the country’s current transport system, several Indian companies, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland among others have begun making electric cars, autorickshaws and buses (as well as two-wheelers) that run on lithium-ion batteries.

The latest policy is meant to boost that industry.

Full report here.