As we know, the electric vehicle trend is catching on rapidly, and the millenials are all for it, customers interested to purchase cars now are strongly considering electric cars instead of petrol and diesel powered cars.
However, the biggest issue has been the price of such Electric cars, but fear not as we come bearing good news! In the FY21 annual general meeting of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, has claimed that the prices of electric vehicles will come down and become equal to those of petrol and diesel cars by 2024.
In addition to his statement, Mr.Gadkari claimed that around 250 startup companies are currently engaged in bringing cost-effective innovations in the field of electric mobility.
In addition to this, there are limited offerings in the EV segment, due to which their asking prices are high. The arrival of new manufactureres with their latest EV offerings will certainly reduce the production costs of electric vehicles in general.
At the same time, Mr. Gadkari also confirmed that the arrival of electric vehicles is not happening at the cost of registration of newer internal combustion engine vehicles.
He mentioned that while registration of new IC-engine vehicles will not stop, the government is encouraging to shift focus towards alternative fuels like hydrogen and ethanol.
In addition to introducing stricter emission norms for vehicles, the government is encouraging to shift focus towards alternative fuels like hydrogen and ethanol.
In addition to introducing stricter emission norms for vehicles, the government is also woking towards increasing the composition of ethanol in petrol.
Nitin Gadkari placed a strong emphasis on the usage of alternate fuels such as ethanol and CNG and to reduce the dependancy on conventional fuels like petrol and diesel.
He claimed that around 80% of the fossil fuel like petrol and diesel. He claimed that around 80% of the fossil fuel consumed in India via imports, which is costing the government around 8 lakh crore INR.
If the dependancy on fossil fuels will remain the same as how it is today, the import bills will see a significant rise up to 25 lakh crore INR, which will eventually make them more expensive to buy for the common public of the country.
He also compared the running costs of petrol and electric vehicles, which mentioned that the running costs of electric vehicles are almost 6 times lower than that of petrol vehicles.
Compared to 12,000-15,000 INR spent for running a petrol-driven car, only 2,000 per month is being spent for running an EV.
Apart from introducing newer electric vehicles by carmakers and pushing for alternative fuels, the government is also working on strengthening the infrastructure for these vehicles.
The National Highway Authoruty of India has already increased the pace of setting up charging infrastruture for these vehicles. The NHAI has already increased the pace of setting up charging infrastructure for EVs across the country.
In addition, 38% of the National Grid now supports solar power, which is a step in the right direction to achieve greener mobility.
Also read: