Most of our products to have 90% localisation by March, says Hero Electric CEO

As India drives its electric vehicle policy through a subsidy programme that encourages local production, its hasty implementation, frequent changes, and unavailability of finance for the vehicles have been weighing on the country’s EV industry.

In March, the government announced an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore towards subsidies to incentivise primarily electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers over the next three years, under its FAME – II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) scheme. But to avail of the subsidies – manufacturers had to have about half of the components that went into the vehicles sourced from local suppliers. The result? Few manufacturers were able to avail of the scheme’s benefits, and many had to halt production and scramble to get their products recertified on a tight deadline.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric and Director General of Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) talked about the challenges faced by the industry players.