E-vehicle policy okayed
To spur electric and hybrid vehicle production in the country, the Centre on Wednesday approved draft electric vehicle policy.
The policy outlines to produce 60 lakh electric vehicles by 2020 with the investment of Rs 23,000 crore, Heavy industries secretary S Sundareshan told reporters here.
Of the Rs 23,000 crore, half will invest from the government and the rest will be from corporate sector he said. After the meeting of the National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) here, attended by Union Minister for New Renewal Energy Farooq Abdhulla, Urban Development Kamal Nath, Road Transport and Highways C P Joshi and Heavy Industries Praful Patel, it was decided that the final policy document will be released by Manmohan Singh soon. However, the Secretary did not reveal the details of the policy including incentives given to industry.
At present, only Mahindra Reva sells a fully electric car in India, while there are a few electric two-wheeler makers such as Hero Electric and Electrotherm.
Currently, most of the components used in making electric vehicles in India are imported. In future, India wants to use locally manufactured components in the vehicle for which the policy will also have the road map to set up research and development centres, he said.
