The country is set to switch over to battery-powered vehicles by 2030, as the Narendra Modi government has decided to start the programme with the public transport in the first phase.
The programme will be be headed by the IIT-Madras professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala in the coming months, an official said recently.
The government has also decided to include limited tax breaks for battery-powered vehicles (also known as e-vehicles) manufacturers and the sale of vehicles without batteries to improve affordability. As part of the plan, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and non-air-conditioned city buses will be sold without batteries to slash the prices by as much as 70%.
The batteries will be leased at a specified cost and can be swiftly swapped with recharged ones at stations, reported The Economic Times.
“It will take just two-and-half minutes to replace auto batteries and can be done in 10 minutes when city buses rest after about a 30-km trip. The model, however, will not work for AC cars and AC buses,” a government official associated with the project stated.
The ministries of road transport, power, petroleum and heavy industries are involved in the programme being framed by the government.
For taxis, the government is considering fast-charging electric stations.
