Few issues have evoked as much dismay, confusion, optimism and ambition as the government's push towards electrification of cars. Over the last 18 months the BJP led government has shown remarkable zeal and drive to make India a full electric car market in record time. Let us bring you up to speed with the key developments and statements made by various cabinet ministers over the last year-and-a-half on this issue.
It all picked up pace in April last year, when the then Power Minister Piyush Goyal proposed the first move towards electric vehicles.
This is what he said - ''We are going to introduce electric vehicles in a very big way. We are going to make electric vehicles self-sufficient like Unnat Jyoti by affordable LEDs for all. The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country.''
One month later, that is in May 2017, the government announces plan to introduce swappable batteries to make adaptation to EVs cheaper and easy.
To kick things in action, the government decided to procure about 10,000 electric vehicles. In October 2017, government owned energy service company Energy Efficiency Services Limited choses Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra to supply 500 electric vehicles in the first phase.
Just one month after that-- Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari made headlines by rejecting the idea of swappable batteries. The minister felt that battery swapping was not a viable option for India.
However, the momentum to electrify our mobility continued--the same month, that is November 2017- NITI Aayog along with Rocky Mountain Institute released a report on electric vehicles-- the report proposed a 3-phase approach for EV adoption by 2032.
Last month, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari was quoted in the press saying that NITI Aayog's electric vehicle policy was awaiting a clearance from the cabinet… but just a month later, that is February 15th, a major twist came -- with Gadkari announcing that there's no need for a policy on electric vehicles. He went on to say that an action plan is already in place. So what exactly is India’s status when it comes to shifting to electric vehicles?
Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog discussed all of that and more in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
Also watch accompanying video of India’s leading auto giants-- RC Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki India and Shekar Viswanathan, VC of Toyota Kirloskar Motor to know how Motown is interpreting this big twist in the EV push.
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