Government panel working on power surge plan for electric vehicles.

NEW DELHI: Allowing 16-year-olds to drive electric bikes and free charging stations for battery-operated vehicles. These are among the proposals that India may implement as it seeks to make electric vehicles more ubiquitous in cities choking on diesel and petrol fumes.

A government panel is giving the finishing touches on the report that will form the basis of the programme, which is ambitious in scope considering that the presence of electric vehicles on Indian roads is minuscule and the power network not really well placed to supply electricity to even regular consumers in large parts of the country.

"In scooters, three-wheelers and city taxis, we expect tactical shifts," said a top official involved with the effort. "Permits will be liberalised for e-vehicles in these categories. The number of e-vehicles in the segments can go up as high as 25-30%... in the next few years."

The programme will be implemented in conjunction with the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) and aims to get 6-7 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020.

The panel was set up following a meeting of ministers — Nitin Gadkari (roads), Piyush Goyal (power, renewable energy), Prakash Javadekar (environment) and Dharmendra Pradhan (oil) — on the best way to advance agenda on electric vehicles. The panel has been set up to draft a report as a joint effort by the ministries mentioned above.

Four key initiatives are among those that have been discussed and are likely to be part of the draft: Viability gap funding (VGF) to state transport undertakings (STUs) for hiring electric buses Liberalising permits for batterypowered auto-rickshaws, city taxis Lowering the minimum age to 16 for riding electric scooters (from 18 for all vehicles) Setting up charging infrastructure and providing free charging/free parking in public places for at least two-three years In the first phase, the incentive for STUs to rent electric buses will be implemented in the eight biggest cities. A nodal agency may be set up subsequently to extend it.

"While the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan has been designed to develop an ecosystem and a supplier base which would help automakers manufacture electric vehicles locally at competitive costs, this programme is more broad-based and citizen-centric," said the person cited above. "It will generate awareness and promote usage of electric vehicles."

India first offered tangible support to the electric vehicle industry at the end of 2010, with the new and renewable energy ministry announcing a Rs 95-crore incentive scheme me for manufacturers. Import duty on batteries was cut to 4% from 26%. Price rebates of up to 20% were also offered, subject to a maximum of Rs 1lakh for an electric car.

Under the NEMMP 2020 scheme approved in 2012, the government was to invest up to Rs 14,000 crore in creating infrastructure and promoting the use of environment-friendly electric vehicles. Industry was to pitch in the extra Rs 10,000 crore required to develop products and create a manufacturing ecosystem. NEMMP is projected to help save 2-2.5 million tonnes of fossil fuels by 2020. Carbon dioxide emissions are projected to come down by up to 1.5%.

Chetan Maini, founder of what is now Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Co and Indian Institute of Technology Madras professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala are members of the committee along with joint secretaries of the departments mentioned above. Funding details are yet to be nailed down but the Centre expects the programme to lead to 25-30% of the two-wheeler, three-wheeler and city taxi population in the country to be electric in the next few years.

The final programme report is scheduled to come up for discussion by the ministers of the stakeholder ministries of roads, power, heavy industries, petroleum and renewable energy. Jhunjhunwala declined to comment on the report.

Industry executives said the electric vehicle industry is at a nascent stage with volumes comprising less than 1% of total vehicles sales, with lack of infrastructure a major hurdle. Experts point out that large swathes of the country are yet to get regular, stable power supplies. "Awareness is growing but a lot schemore needs to be done in setting up requisite charging infrastructure," said Sohinder Gill, director, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV).

At the last count, India had about 100 charging points for electric vehicles. Electric two-wheelers can average 50-55 km on a full charge and four-wheelers about 100 km. Range anxiety, or the fear of running out of charge with no dependable power source near at hand, is a major deterrent in the adoption of vehicles that run solely on battery power.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com