FAME III must focus on EV awareness and battery manufacturing

Despite the Centre’s push for greater adoption of electric vehicles, the number of EV’s registered remains a low 0.7 percent. Now, top bureaucrats from three states have suggested measures to create greater awareness, support battery manufacturing and skilling and boost electric vehicles in the public transport. They also said that India needs a national level electric vehicle policy.

Delhi Government has rolled out an extensive EV policy to ensure that 25 percent of all new registered vehicles would be electric by 2024. The state will also be converting its hired fleet of government vehicles to electric in the next six months. “We need to target subsidies smartly to increase adoption. State and city level policies need to complement each other. We are targeting two and three wheelers in Delhi’s EV policy”, said Jasmine Shah.

He added that the Delhi government was making regulations to encourage electric bike taxis and three wheelers. Shah also highlighted that Delhi which has 70 charging points currently, will have a 100 more in the coming six months.

The bureaucrat who was closely involved in drafting Telangana’s EV policy, said that public transport must set a good example of using electric vehicles in order to encourage people to adopt them. Ranjan said that the state government is looking to increase the state’s fleet of electric buses from 70 to 500 and will support acquisition of 25000 electric three wheelers.

“The Centre should incentivize states which give scale for EV manufacturing. Telangana will provide scale for manufacturing of EV components. FAME III can focus on supporting battery manufacturing R&D and skilling”, he said.

Perwaiz said that the Karnataka government was thrilled about Tesla’s decision to incorporate in the state and await more clarity. “We are focusing on making Karnataka a hub for EV manufacturing.  Lack of charging infra is a bottleneck. The state is working on greater adoption of electric three wheelers and public transport”, said Perwaiz.

The bureaucrat said that FAME III must focus on clearing misconceptions around cost of electric vehicles and that the state had allocated 1000 acres for setting up of a battery manufacturing and EV hub.