For government subsidy, electric vehicles have to be pricier: Hero Electric Vehicles

Hero Electric Vehicles, one of the largest electric scooter manufacturers in India by sales, on Friday said that electric vehicles have to be pricier to get the government subsidy.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18's Areeb Sherwani, Naveen Munjal, managing director, said the government needs to do a lot more to incentivise electric vehicle (EV) demand and stressed the need to improve the provisions of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) II policy.

“Globally, electric two-wheelers are generally at lower speed vehicles. Simply because, the more powerful you make the vehicle, the more batteries are going to cost you and the more it is going to be expensive for you to run. India, as a country, when you look at your average cost per kilometre, you are going to support the lower end of the vehicles, which is the mass vehicles," Munjal said.

Further, he said, "There is no point for you to support the niche end of the vehicles, the top end of the vehicles and then hope that the adoption is going to happen from there. So, there is this conversion which is going to happen from a scooter or a motorcycle user even to a lower end."

“Right now, the moped category is reduced. You got a bicycle and then you have got a scooter or a motorcycle. What happens to a user who doesn’t want that speed and range and who can do with a city speed vehicle which is about 35-40 kilometres per hour? There is a large part of the population who are using these vehicles for delivery and etc. who don’t even want a license, they just need a low-speed vehicle, which is economical to run, which does their bit for the environment,” he added.