The electric vehicle segment is slowly but surely catching and a big push for the same has come from the central government. The centre has been consistently pushing the electric mobility narrative with plans to switch about 70 per cent of vehicles on the road into EVs by 2030. Adding to the same, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari recently said that India is likely to see about one crore electric vehicle sales and over five crore jobs in the EV sector by the end of this decade.
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The Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) was speaking at the 19th EV Expo 2023 held in Delhi-NCR. Gadkari said, "As per the Vahan database, 34.54 lakh EVs are already registered in India." However, the minister did not disclose the break-up of sales concerning electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers. Notably, electric two-wheelers presently make up the majority of EV sales in India.
Gadkari further asserted that India has the potential to become the number one EV maker in the world and the government is committed to making India a self-reliant country in clean energy production and mass application.
Nitin Gadkari also said that the government has permitted retrofitting of existing polluting vehicles into hybrid and fully electric vehicles. He revealed that the regulations have been finalised and technology demonstrations done successfully. The MoRTH minister said that the government intends to shift public transport and logistics to EVs in the near future.
The government has been pushing the manufacturing of electric vehicles in India. It rolled out the PLI scheme to push for battery cell manufacturing, while also strengthening the supplier ecosystem for supporting electric mobility. The centre has also been encouraging state governments to roll out their respective EV policies for faster adoption.
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Speaking of which, the last few years saw the FAME policy play a significant role in subsidising electric vehicles in making them accessible to customers. The recent revision in the FAME II policy saw prices go up and that has slowed down adoption. However, reports are rife of a FAME III policy in the works that will help provide the necessary framework to keep the momentum active.
