NEW DELHI: About 877,000 electric vehicles were on Indian roads as of December 8, minister of state for power and heavy industries Krishan Pal Gurjar told Lok Sabha in a written reply on Tuesday. He added incentives were being provided to buyers in the form of upfront reductions in the prices to promote electric vehicles.
Gurjar referred to two production-linked incentive schemes to encourage the use of electric cars. They include the approval for setting up manufacturing facilities for advanced chemistry cell batteries, battery storage in India with a manufacturing capacity of 50 Giga Watt Hour, and an outlay of ₹18,100 crore for five years. Gurjar said there is another scheme for automobile and auto components with a budgetary outlay of ₹25,938 crore over the five-year period.
Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Karnataka have emerged as the top three states in terms of electric vehicle registrations.
To push the electric vehicle sales, the Centre introduced the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles scheme in 2015. In April 2019, it introduced phase II of the scheme for five years with total budgetary support of ₹10,000 crore. The government has also reduced GST on electric vehicles from 12% to 5%. It also reduced GST on charging infrastructure to promote the development of charging stations.
Source: hindustantimes.com
