Opinion
Mint Quick Edit | Give hybrids tax relief to help decarbonize traffic
Summary
- India must take a pragmatic path to a decarbonized economy. The current tax disparity between EVs and hybrid vehicles isn’t helping the cause, since the latter are much easier to adopt but remain woefully overpriced.
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Tuesday that the disparity in taxes India imposes on electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids will “continue for a long time." The goal is to increase battery manufacturing and accelerate the electrification of transport.
With India having set itself a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, the country needs to decarbonize. We must, however, take a pragmatic approach. With hybrid vehicles overtaxed, they remain too expensive for many buyers keen on switching to cleaner modes of conveyance.
Also read: Clean energy’s next trillion-dollar business
At the same time, EV sales are not growing fast enough because charging infrastructure remains woefully inadequate, few people have space for their own charging bays at home and EV makers have not been able to dispel “range anxiety", or the fear of a battery running low prematurely.
Summer heat has been seen to reduce the distance a single charge can cover. These problems are being addressed, would-be EV buyers hear, but the progress so far has not been impressive.
In the interim, we should use hybrid vehicles as a bridge technology. Reducing taxes on them to make them cheaper could speed up India’s decarbonization journey.
