EVs should comprise 20-25% of government's new purchases: Tata Motors' Naik

NEW DELHI: To push adoption of electric mobility in the new decade, the Centre should ensure that 20-25% of new vehicle purchases of state transport units (STUs) comprise electric vehicles, according to a senior industry executive.

The government should also ask financial institutions to extend affordable loans to customers to boost purchases of zero-emmission vehicles.

According to Sushant Naik, global head, government and public affairs, Tata Motors Ltd, getting financing options for electric vehicles remains a challenge and the government should incentivise sales of such vehicles through lesser or affordable interest rates.

The Narendra Modi government has been pushing for electric mobility as it looks to transform India's energy landscape to keep with its climate change commitments.

In 2019, the Indian government earmarked ₹10,000 crore to encourage development, manufacturing and usage of electric vehicles though the Faster Adoptions and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme.

As part of the scheme, the Centre has decided to incentivise purchase of 7,090 electric buses with an outlay of ₹3,545 crore, 20,000 hybrids at a cost ₹26 crore, 35,000 four-wheelers with a ₹525 crore investment and 500,000 three-wheelers at ₹2,500 crore.

"The new vehicles that are bought by the governments, at least 20-25% of that should be electric vehicles. Also, we would like the Centre to mandate the state transport units that 20-25% of the total busses that they buy should be electric. There are also challenges related to installing of home chargers as well,” added Naik in a discussion organized by Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) on electric mobility on Saturday.

Tata Motors has been pushing its electric busses and passenger vehicles, aggressively in the domestic market for past few years. Earlier this year, the company launched an electric variant of its popular sport utility vehicle, Nexon, at an aggressive price of 13.99 lakh. The company also improved its Tigor electric sedan with a range of 213 kilometres and 21.5 kilowatt hour lithium battery pack.

"With the introduction of the Bharat Stage VI emission standards, the difference between the price of an electric vehicle and one with internal combustion has reduced to just ₹1 to ₹2 lakh. With the new models coming in from companies like MG Motor, Hyundai and Tata Motors, financing options will also be available,” said Sanjay Krishnan, founder, Lithium Urban Technologies, a shared mobility platform which offers electric vehicle fleet for employee transportation.