India to formulate local electric vehicle standards to facilitate segment growth

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With an aim to reduce set-up costs, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) are working on local standards for electric vehicles (EV) in India, the Mint reported.

The current acceptable global standards, Japanese, Chinese and European. Indian companies find it expensive to buy license from Japan, China and European countries. Home-grown regulations would also facilitate a pan-India EV charging grid, which could be pivotal for a turnaround in the segment as a lack of EV charging stations is posing a major hurdle to adoption of electric mobility, it added.

Manufacturing EVs and their parts domestically was also being pushed by the government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid vehicles (FAME) scheme, and local standards would be an addition in this direction by the NITI Aayog, it said.

On May 5, industry body CII pointed out that policies like FAME need to be supplemented with market creation and adoption, domestic manufacturing of vehicles, components and batteries, strategic sourcing of key raw material and skill development in India are needed to support policies like FAME to embrace mass adoption of electric vehicles by 2030.

With an eye on promoting electric and hybrid vehicles, the Union Cabinet recently cleared an Rs 10,000-crore programme under the FAME-II scheme. The scheme is being implemented over a period of three years with effect from April 1, 2019.

It is the expanded version of the present scheme FAME India I which was launched on April 1, 2015, with a total outlay of Rs 895 crore.

However, with EV penetration in India currently at just 1 percent, FAME alone is not enough to reach the 2030 target, CII said, suggesting various measures as prerequisites in this transition. For transport to go truly green, it must also be accompanied by a rising share of renewables along with environmentally sustainable batteries, it added.

Emails sent by Mint to BIS and DST on Friday did not elicit any response till press time.

(With inputs from PTI)