Electric Vehicles This Week: Fleet Operators Are Reluctant To Pay EV Premium and More

In the backdrop of central government’s ambitious National Electric Mobility Mission, to convert one-third of the Indian automobiles to electric vehicles by 2030. Automobile major, Maruti Suzuki conducted a survey of 30 big vehicle fleets in India to gauge India’s expectation from electric vehicles. Interestingly, the fleet operators including Ola, Uber and Zoomcar, expressed reluctance to pay more than a 20% premium for an electric vehicle.

Adding to the the fleet operators reluctance are central government’s shallow promises. Behind the promise of leading the world in EVs, central government’s interim budget 2019-20 did not share any initiatives or schemes to aid the goal.

Elaborating the elusiveness of government’s mission is the lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the country. However, the bright silver lining in the central government plans are the aggressive announcements of grants and schemes by the state governments across nation.

Earlier this week, Karnataka’s minister for large and medium scale industries, KJ George announced that half of the government vehicles in Bengaluru will be electric by 2019. He also shared that government is proactively amending parking spaces and city signages to accommodate electric vehicles.  

With this, here are other electric vehicle developments around the nation:  

India

Delhi Govt Assigns INR 100 Cr To State Electric Vehicle Fund

In addition to the INR 100 Cr fund, state government’s 2019-20 budget has also earmarked INR 50 Cr. from the fund of environment compensation charge for the state electric vehicle fund. Delhi Government has also announced strengthening of the public transport system with the induction of 4,000 new buses, including 1000 e-buses

Mahindra Forays Into Shared Mobility Space With Glyd

Glyd is a tech-based emobility service, launched to serve some select routes in Mumbai. The service will allow video-conferencing and other advanced connected car features such as curated entertainment and music content. The automobile company also shared plans to offer premium services such as privacy screens, air purifiers and strain-free lighting.

Central Govt To Soon Announce Subsidy for 60K Electric Cars

According to a moneycontrol report, centre will be soon offering a subsidy up to INR 2.5 Lakh for 60K electric cars and a benefit of INR 20K for 20K hybrid cars which are expected to be bought in the next three years.This INR 10K Cr. announcement is expected to provide the much needed push to green India plans.  

Puegeot to launch electric cars in India

Major automobile brand,  PSA Peugeot Citroen has reportedly announced its foray to India in 2021. The announcement came on February 26, as a part of PSA’s annual event. Along with electric cars, brand will also offer fossil fuel-powered automobiles.

Cabinet Is Expected To Pass FAME II scheme

The Union Cabinet is expected to soon clear INR 10K Cr. programme under the FAME-II scheme. The scheme was introduced for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles. In contrast to earlier plans, FAME-II will be applied for a period of three years instead of five.

International

Hyundai Motor to introduce new EV platform by 2020

Korean automobile major, Hyundai Motor has announced plans to build a dedicated electric vehicle platform for its upcoming range of electric vehiclesin 2020. This new platform is a part of company’s planned $40 Bn investment in innovation, new models and technologies for electric vehicles.

Auto Trader predicts UK might miss electric car sales target

As per the analysis of an online marketplace, Auto Trader, only three-quarters of new cars sold in 2040 in the UK will be electrically powered. Unless ministers increase consumers incentives to buy battery vehicles, UK government’s target to phase out non-electric vehicles by 2040, will not be met. This analysis was done by monitoring the browsing and buying habits of 500K cars and a survey of 3K consumers.

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