Electric Vehicles This Week: China’s Problem Of Plenty, Delhi’s First E-Taxi Service And More

This week the Chinese government put a ban new projects for traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and raised the entry barrier for electric vehicles (EVs). According to the new rules EV startups and overseas enterprises will only be allowed build their own plants in China after reaching global sales of over 30K units or CNY 3 Bn ($443.75 Mn) in the previous two years.

The rules are aimed at containing potential overcapacity problems. Chinese companies and automotive giants have collectively announced plans to setup a capacity for making 20 Mn units by 2020 in China, according to local media reports. This would be around 10 times the government’s ambitious 2 million target for sales, and not far off the size of China’s entire passenger vehicle market last year.

According to international ratings agency, Fitch, China’s tougher rules on building new electric vehicle (EV) plants are likely to cool the EV investment boom.

While China deals with a problem of plenty, here are the latest developments in the EV sector from India and around the world:

EV News From India

EV Makers Raises Budget Wishlist

EV makers’ group, Society for Manufacture of Electric Vehicles on January 16 reportedly sought an allocation of INR 20K Cr ($2.8 Bn) in the next two years for promoting EVs in the country and urged the government to impose a “notional green cess” on conventional vehicles in the upcoming interim Budget to fund this initiative.

Spelling out their budget wish list, the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV) also said phase-II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) must be announced with a six-year plan and time-bound implementation.

Delhi-Chandigarh Highway To Get EV Charging Stations

State-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) on January 17 reportedly said it will set up a network of solar-based electric vehicle chargers (SEVC) on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway.

“The establishment of EV chargers at regular intervals over the entire 250 km stretch between Delhi and Chandigarh would allay range-anxiety among the electric vehicle users and bolster their confidence for inter-city travel,” the company said in a statement.

Delhi Gets An E-Taxi Service

Gensol Mobility reportedly launched its Blu-Smart initiative in the Delhi-NCR region with around 70 electric cars, with an aim to increase the fleet to 400 by the end of March this year.

The company is in talks with several car companies including Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Nissan for procuring EVs. In addition, it claims to have invested over INR 50 Cr ($7.03 Mn) to set up the required charging infrastructure in various parts of the city.

EV News From Around The World

Volkswagen, Ford Form Global EV Alliance

Ford and Volkswagen announced on January 15 that they partnered together in a “global alliance” and it includes a deal to explore partnering on electric vehicles.

The official deal is focused on “develop commercial vans and medium-sized pickups for global markets beginning as early as 2022”, but they are considering expanding it to EVs and other new technologies.

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