India has a Game Plan for Electric Vehicles: Amitabh Kant

India has put in place a game plan for electric vehicles and its components to ensure clean cities, reduce imports and utilise solar power, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.

India has put in place a game plan for electric vehicles (EV) and its components like batteries to ensure clean cities, reduce imports and utilise solar power, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said. 

He said domestic battery manufacturing for electric vehicles provides a “massive market opportunity”, and also quickens the transition to such environment-friendly transport, which is vital for the country to help combat pollution, congestion, strengthen energy security and create jobs. 

Addressing a conference on sustainable mobility through video link, Kant said the country’s EV focus should mainly be on a two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicles and public transport. 

“We have a game plan to drive electric vehicles, particularly two and three-wheelers, public transport and manufacturing of batteries in India. Our objective is that we should first work on about 80 percent of components of two and three-wheelers and buses and also push manufacturing of batteries in India,” Kant said. 

“Our objective is to clean up cities, reduce imports, and utilise the sun and its energy for driving electric vehicles,” the said. 

“From the perspective of energy security and competitive advantage, new mobility solutions will reduce oil import costs, lower India’s trade deficit and limit our vulnerability to oil supply disruptions,” Kant said. 

He said to create a unique eco-system to enable ‘Make in India’, and drive the movement for manufacturing in India, the country will require a phased programme across the entire value chain, an efficient fiscal impact structure, and size and scale aligned to the country’s ambition to produce world-class vehicles for domestic and international markets. 

“With batteries accounting for almost 40 percent of the total cost of EVs today, domestic battery manufacturing is a massive market opportunity for India to rapidly enable the transition to EVs,” Kant said. 

“New battery technologies like a solid-state lithium-ion battery, sodium-ion battery, and silicon-based batteries are underdeveloped. India needs to vigorously pursue research and development and have a clear road map for manufacturing on a mega scale,” he said. 

To facilitate charging infrastructure, Kant said newer models should be explored and start-ups must be facilitated in this area. 

His comments followed the latest notification from the GST council meeting which reduced the GST rate for electric vehicles down to 5 percent.