Indian Govt to give 60,000 electric car buyers subsidy up to Rs. 2.5 lakhs!

Government is planning to do a lot of things in order to promote the culture of electric vehicles in the country. Authorities are now planning to announce a subsidy of up to Rs 2.5 lakh for 60,000 electric vehicles and Rs 20,000 for 20,000 hybrid cars.

This subsidy will be valid on cars that are brought to India over the next three years to promote green fuel in the country. Cabinet is likely to take up this proposal as part of the second phase of FAME scheme. Government had almost doubled the allocation for the scheme from Rs 5,500 crore earlier.

The idea behind this scheme is to popularize electric cars, and slowly make the buyer move away from petrol and diesel cars. India is an importer of oil, and this makes up the bulk of the country’s imports, wasting precious foreign exchange in the process. India also has a major air pollution problem in most cities, and this can be addressed to a certain extent by converting the entire vehicle population of India into electric vehicles. Electric cars, which can use electricity generated from clean sources such as hydel power and nuclear power, will be cleaner than petrol and diesel cars.

The scheme is likely to get implemented from April. Government will put a cap of Rs 15 lakh ex-factory price of a vehicle, except for buses to avail subsidy. The subsidy will be calculated on the basis of battery capacity of a particular vehicle.

Along with this there will be a focus on expanding infrastructure for electric vehicles. Government had earlier issued a set of guidelines which asks to set up charging stations every 25 km on highways and roads across India. Along with that focus will also be on manufacturing lithium ion batteries to keep the costs down.

Recently many manufacturers have informed that they are planning to enter the electric vehicle segment. Mahindra will launch an electric variant of their recently launched XUV300 next year. Similarly Hyundai will also introduce Kona EV to india later this year. Maruti Suzuki has also started testing WagonR EV and it has been spotted many times.

Another manufacturer that is planning to enter Indian market with their electric vehicle is Volvo. Unlike its German rivals, Volvo wants to take things a step ahead. Volvo wants to start assembling electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in India.

Volvo will soon launch their first India-assembled plug-in hybrid car later this year and have plans to extend their portfolio of battery operated and plug-in hybrid cars to half-a-dozen by 2021. With rising fuel prices, stringent emission norms more and more manufacturers are likely to enter the electric vehicle space in the coming years.