Union Budget 2021 | Need govt schemes to push banks to lend to EV manufacturers, operators, says Yulu CEO

he need of the hour is to promote mobility as a service using EVs, he writes

By Mr Amit Gupta

The need of the hour is to promote and make EV's the preferred mode of public utility vehicle and hence it is important to create a framework for making affordable debt capital available to EV startups. Electric mobility can go a long way in reducing air and noise pollution in urban areas. The government and especially nationalized banks can collectively work together to support startups and companies in the segment.

Hence Government's consideration of loan guarantee schemes to encourage banks to lend to EV manufacturers and operators, with parity on lending terms would go a long way. The need of the hour is to promote mobility as a service using EVs. Infrastructure for ease of use of EV like charging kiosks and Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) Lanes within 5 Km of all current/future metro stations are key factors to boost the demand of EV usage.

We also recommend that incentives must be given for purchasing ‘low speed’ EVs as this will enable the sustained provision of affordable and environment-friendly transportation options for the masses.

Overall, we recommend a national policy on parking infrastructure for shared mobility and a mechanism to unblock input credits which will lower the cost of operations. We also urge standardizing lithium-ion batteries to promote swapping infrastructure. Further, we suggest rationalizing GST rate on critical components of an EV like the battery or propose schemes to boost local production of batteries.

(The author is the CEO and Co-founder of Yulu)