Skip to main content

India’s auto industry gears up for government’s electric vehicles push

NEW DELHI: India’s aggressive push to electrify all new vehicles by 2030 is compelling auto part manufacturers and carmakers to draw up early plans for electrification, company executives said.
A new auto policy is in the works and will include a roadmap for electric vehicles, a government official said, adding that this is likely to be made public before year-end.Engine-maker Cummins India is investing in research on electric mobility solutions for India, while Hyundai Motor Co has begun talks with some of its suppliers for components for electric cars, company executives said.
Ashok Leyland, which launched an electric bus last year, has partnered with Indian start-up SUN Mobility to develop battery-swapping technology for cars, buses and trucks.
“This is going to be a major challenge but it is one we have to embrace and not duck,” Anant Talaulicar, managing director, Cummins India said.
He said commercial vehicle makers in India have asked Cummins to look into electric mobility solutions and only once they make a proposal will the company commit to capital investments.
“It will not happen so soon. First we need to demonstrate the technology,” he said, adding that the company is open to acquisitions and partnerships as it would help get access to the technology faster.
Electric vehicles are expensive due to the high cost of batteries which are still not manufactured in India, and carmakers say a lack of charging stations could make the whole proposition unviable.
But the government is determined to push ahead.In a stern warning to the auto industry, India’s road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday asked companies to start building electric and alternative fuel vehicles or risk being overtaken by policy changes.
“Don’t get confused about policy and rules, foray into electric bikes, buses and cars. I won’t seek your suggestions over this. You have to diversify,” Gadkari said.
In May India’s leading think-tank laid out a 15-year roadmap for electrifying all new vehicles in the country by limiting registration of petrol and diesel cars while giving incentives and subsidies on sales of electric cars.
Electric car sales in India, one of the world’s fastest-growing car markets, are negligible compared with annual sales of over 3 million petrol and diesel cars last fiscal year, according to industry data.
Mahindra & Mahindra is the only electric car maker in India but in a few years it may be joined by Tata Motors which has explored the possibility of building electric cars on its existing platform, managing director Guenter Butschek said.
Hyundai, which shelved plans to launch hybrid cars in India after the government’s electric push, said it will need to customize its existing electric cars for the Indian market.If it is unable to adapt existing products, it will look at developing new electric cars for India, said Rakesh Srivastava, director, sales and marketing.
The Korean carmaker has begun talks with its existing suppliers but is also open to forming new partnerships to source components for electric cars.
“We would like to take a fresh look because we will need volumes,” Srivastava said.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acharya appointed to NOC’s top post

The government has given the responsibility of the executive director of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to Joint Secretary at Ministry of Supplies (MoS), Prem Prasad Acharya.A ministerial-level meeting at MoS today decided to give the responsibility of NOC’s top post to Acharya until further notice, according to Urmila KC, undersecretary at MoS. The post of executive director at NOC had become vacant after the government, on Monday, sacked the then executive director of the corporation Gopal Bahadur Khadka for his alleged involvement in financial irregularities while procuring land for the development of petroleum infrastructure.
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Clean India’ mission not ending manual scavenging, activists say

MUMBAI:  A flagship government program to modernise India’s sanitation has failed to tackle the practice of low caste women clearing faeces by hand, and has even exacerbated the problem by building toilets not connected to water supplies, campaigners say. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, with much fanfare after he took office in 2014, sweeping a Delhi street with a broom. Since then, thousands of toilets have been built across the country.But Dalit communities, especially women, are still forced to be manual scavengers, a euphemism for clearing faeces from dry toilets and open drains by hand, despite laws to end the practice. The workers have it harder now, activists said. “Swachh Bharat has diverted attention from ending manual scavenging, and makes it seem like the whole country is cleaning. But if that’s the case, then why are people still dying in septic tanks,” said activist Bezwada Wilson. “There is also no dis...
Post a Comment
Read more

US trio win Nobel for finding Einstein’s gravitational waves

STOCKHOLM/LONDON:  Three US scientists won the 2017 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time foreseen by Albert Einstein a century ago. The work of Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne crowned half a century of experimental efforts by scientists and engineers.Measuring gravitational waves offers a new way to observe the cosmos, helping scientists explore the nature of mysterious objects including black holes and neutron stars. It may also provide insight into the universe’s very earliest moments. The first detection of the waves created a scientific sensation when it was announced early last year and the teams involved in the discovery had been widely seen as favourites for Tuesday’s prize. “We now witness the dawn of a new field: gravitational wave astronomy,” Nils Martensson, acting chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics, told reporters. “This will teach us about the ...
Post a Comment
Read more