India Aims To Achieve 7M Sales Of Electric And Hybrid Vehicles By 2020

Under the National Electronic Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP), by 2020, the Indian government aims to reach 6-7M sales of electric and hybrid vehicles.

The NEMMP 2020, a document of national mission, provides the vision as well as a roadmap for electric vehicles' faster adoption and manufacturing in India.

The plan is set to boost national fuel security, to offer environment-friendly and affordable transportation to allow the automotive industry of India to accomplish a global manufacturing leadership.

Arvind Sawant - Union Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister in a statement replying to the Rajya Sabha said:

Based on the experience from FAME India Scheme’s Phase-I, it is a requirement to have sufficient charging infrastructure to achieve the plan’s expected result, which is currently being addressed in FAME Scheme’s Phase-II.

Additionally, Rs 10,000 crore has been approved by the government for FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme on 1 July.

Nirmala Sitharaman, India's Finance Minister, has recently encouraged the production and introduction of e-vehicles in the country in her first Budget speech. Accordingly, the government will deduct Rs. 1.5 lakh in the income tax on the interest paid on loan for buying e-vehicles. Additionally, it will also lower the GST (Goods and Services Tax) rate from 12% to 5%. Besides, there is no customs duty on the imports of goods required to build a lithium battery production unit.

The officials from Nit Aayog, a government think tank, suggested last month that taxi aggregators such as Uber and Ola would have to switch to use transportation powered by electricity.

Additionally, the Indian government announced in March that it was planning on establishing a National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage to adopt clean and connected techs which can open the door for shared and sustainable electric vehicles infrastructure era in India.