“No such proposal is under consideration” ministry of heavy industries,” junior minister Krishan Pal Gurjar told Parliament On Monday, mentioned the ministry in charge of making policies for the auto industry. He said the government is taking steps to promote the use of electric cars by reducing domestic taxes and adding charging stations.
The lawmakers’ response can be regarded as part of a tug of war between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, which wants to boost local manufacturing, and Tesla, which is urging India to start manufacturing cars before setting off. Allow imports more cheaply. Over a factory in the country.
As Bloomberg News reports, Tesla last month wrote to the ministries of transportation and industry requesting them to reduce import duties on electric cars to 40% from the current range of 60%-100%.
The Tesla factory that produces cars in India has “great potential” if the electric automaker can start sales with imported vehicles first, Chief Executive Officer Musk said in a later tweet.
@TeslaGong @madan3 If Tesla is able to succeed with imported vehicles, a factory in India is very likely.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 1627068942000
Musk has for years shown his eagerness to enter one of the world’s most promising automobile markets, but complained that Indian regulations prevent him from testing the waters with first imports, as the high tariffs render Tesla cars “unbearable”. “Make.
Tesla is trying to make inroads into Asia’s third-largest economy, where electric vehicles account for less than 1% of annual car sales, compared to about 5% in China. Unlike China, where Tesla set up its first factory outside the US and now dominates electric-car sales, sparse charging infrastructure and costly costs have prevented mass adoption of electric vehicles in India.
Those constraints have also turned Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the top local carmaker that sells every other car on Indian roads, depressed about the uptake of electric cars in the country.
“Unfortunately, currently available technology is leading to production of electric cars at a much higher cost than conventional cars,” Maruti Chairman RC Bhargava said in the company’s annual report on Monday. “This, along with the lack of charging infrastructure, makes it very difficult to sell electric cars to people who can only afford small cars.”
Bhargava, head of Japan’s local unit, said market penetration of electric vehicles would be “very low”, as only 5% of the cars sold in India cost more than Rs 15 lakh ($20,169). Suzuki Motor Corp. Per capita income in India is only $2,000 – 5% of it in Europe and Japan – which puts expensive electric cars out of reach of most consumers, he said.
Such figures have raised concerns that without progress in cleaning the roads of poorer countries, global warming will not be kept below alarming levels, even as wealthier nations seek to phase out combustion-engine vehicles to combat climate change. be planning. Most EVs are sold in the US, China and Europe, where state-backed purchase incentives and investments in charging infrastructure make it easier for customers to abandon combustion cars.
Bhargava said to achieve net-zero emissions, Maruti will work on hybrid models, improve technology for cars running on compressed natural gas and focus on biofuels. “The use of hydrogen is also an interesting option and should be considered especially to reduce dependence on imports of lithium.”
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